Barcelona will regret Luis Suarez’s new contract
Barcelona signed Luis Suarez for too many years
When the news of Luis Suarez’s new contract with Barcelona hit the news, fans of the La Liga giants immediately began to celebrate. They should enjoy the contract for the next season or two, because it could transform into a really ugly deal towards the end of its term.
The striker’s new contract will pay him £230 thousand per week and keep him at Barcelona through 2021. At first glance, that sounds like a really great deal for the club. £230 thousand per week isn’t anything to sneeze at, but it’s not an outrageous wage packet either. Simply compare it to the sort of wages both Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil are seeing from Arsenal and you can see it’s very in line with the standards of modern football.
The deal even protects Barcelona with an astronomical release clause. Another club would need to cough up a transfer fee in excess of £167 million to acquire Suarez. It’s a pretty safe bet that Barcelona can hold on to him throughout the duration of the contract.
The problem with this contract is the fact that Suarez will be 34 when it expires. He’s playing at a really high level now, but his skills are likely going to start a steady decline pretty soon. This deal could become quite onerous during its last two seasons.
The reality is that Suarez accepted a little less than market value in terms of his current wages, in exchange for more long-term security. It’s a wise strategy by Suarez and his representatives. It’s the sort of contractual gambit that Barcelona officials should have seen through.
A better deal from Barca’s point of view would be to offer Suarez higher wages, but fewer years. They easily could have convinced him to sign a three-year contract with a wage packet of somewhere around £250 thousand per week. Yes, they would have paid him more over those three years, but they would have also preserved two years of flexibility.
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By the time those three years would have expired, Suarez would have likely been transitioned to a bench role. Barcelona still could have chosen to offer him a new contract, but they would have paid him like a reserve. Instead, this current deal will require them to pay Suarez like a superstar for five more years. I’m very skeptical of his ability to maintain that level of play until 2021.
The good news for Barcelona fans is that it’s just money. The club certainly aren’t destitute. As such, they can afford to overpay Suarez for his last several seasons. These sorts of contract mistakes always cost a club something though. It might restrict the players Barcelona want when the summer transfer window of 2020 rolls around. At the very least, it’s something to keep an eye on as time goes by.