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Tuesday Kickoff: Suarez remorseful about bite; Bayern without Schweinsteiger; and more

LuisSuarezBarcelona1-ClubLeonGamperTrophy (Getty)

By DAN KARELL

One day after making his friendly debut for Barcelona, Luis Suarez was presented by the club in front of the local media.

As expected, plenty of the questions centered around the infamous World Cup bite, which left Suarez unable to take part in any official soccer activities until Friday, and he remains suspended at the club level through Oct. 26. Suarez expressed remorse about the incident, but said he was trying to look forward and not think about the past.

“It’s a personal issue, but I’ve dealt with appropriate professionals,” Suarez said. “The sanction is what it is and we have to accept it.”

“I’d rather not go back,” Suarez continued. “I had days when I was very depressed and did not feel like doing anything. Until I was not comfortable with my wife and daughters, I could not apologize to everyone. I reflected and knew I had to accept the reality, apologize to the player and my team. I try not remember it and think about this.”

During the press conference, Barcelona vice president Jordi Mestre revealed that Suarez’s release clause with Liverpool was 75 million pounds ($125 million), but said the team was able to negotiate the transfer price down to 65 million pounds.

Here are some more notes to kick off your Tuesday:

SCHWEINSTEIGER TO MISS START OF SEASON

Bayern Munich will be without at least two of their stars heading into the 2014-2015 Bundesliga season.

After losing Javi Martinez for the rest of the season with a suspected torn anterior cruciate ligament, Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge  revealed that midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger will miss at least the first few weeks of the season as he rests a niggling injury with his patellar tendon.

“He has been examined again yesterday,” Rummenigge said at a press conference. “He has problems with the patella. This will take a few weeks. We are confident that there is nothing long-term.”

The injury problem also means that Schweinsteiger will miss Germany’s upcoming pair of international matches, against Argentina in a rematch of the World Cup final and in a UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying match against Scotland.

QUICK KICKS

Arsenal’s Kieran Gibbs has been ruled out for three weeks with a hamstring injury. (REPORT)

In response, Arsene Wenger has made Olympiakos defender Kostas Manolas his top defensive transfer target. (REPORT)

Borussia Mönchengladbach midfielder Christoph Kramer was left off the team’s squad for its trip to FK Sarajevo for a UEFA Europa League match. Kramer continues to recover from a concussion suffered in the World Cup final. (REPORT)

Queens Park Rangers have signed Chilean forward Eduardo Vargas on a season-long loan from Napoli. (REPORT)

Celtic are close to completing a deal to sign Ghanian international midfielder Wakaso Mubarak on a one-year loan from Rubin Kazan. (REPORT)

Norway has called up promising 15-year-old star Martin Odegaard to the senior national team, and he could make his debut next week in a friendly match against the United Arab Emirates. (REPORT)

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What do you think of these reports? Do you believe Suarez? How big of a loss is Schweinsteiger’s latest injury for Bayern? What do you think of Vargas moving to QPR?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Bayern should go out and sign Jermaine Jones. He is a Champions League player who knows the Bundasliga, and can provide cover for the missing Martinez and Schweini.

    Reply
      • …and petition the local Bavarian county commission to help build a new soccer-specific stadium in downtown Munich.

        Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

  2. Manolas would be a quality signing for Arsenal as a 3rd CB, he is 23 and had a nice WC, also supposedly will cost only about 10 mil euros. If they sign him and a CDM this would be an amazing summer for them, they still have a very clear and obvious need at CDM.

    Reply
  3. Shouldn’t there also be a story here about Geoff Cameron requesting a transfer from Stoke? Ives is the one that reported it.

    Reply
    • That’s what I was going to post. Would be nice if he lands on CL or EL team so he can face some high level European competition. He needs to play and Stoke is forcing him out.

      Reply
    • probably because it was pretty quickly debunked by “cameron’s people” according to the stoke sentinel.

      interesting, because ives usually waits til he’s confident of the story before reporting (often missing the chance to break it). maybe he’s annoyed by twellman getting all the good scoops. 🙂

      Reply
  4. “It’s a personal issue, but I’ve dealt with appropriate professionals.” Taking him at his word, good on Suarez. He’s gained back some of my respect (I’m sure he’ll be relieved to know that). It’s pretty obvious Luis Suarez has some sort of mental illness, so professional help is exactly what he needed to seek. Well done.

    Reply
    • Don’t make excuses for the man. He doesn’t have mental illness anymore than Joey Barton does. Every once in a while Barton tries to fight someone. Every once in a while Suarez tries to bite someone.

      He just has self control issues. Most people do.

      That said he hasn’t really hurt anyone. Its just weirdly infantile.

      Reply
      • He grew up poor in Uruguay where even youth soccer is incredibly corrupt. Cheating is a way of life (or so I have read). Given that and his talent, it’s no surprise no one ever made him learn some self control. And yes, I’d rather be bitten than have my knee taken out, a tactic he could have switched to after the two previous biting punishments.

      • ‘learn some self control’? Seriously he bit someone in a game (for the third time), this time in front of a worldwide TV audience. Don’t you think he did everything he could to try to control that urge after it happened the first time? I hope the professionals he has talked with help, but they will not be there on the field, in the moment of extreme pressure that this urge reveals itself. I’m not really a gambling man but I’d say its a matter of time till it happens again. Shame on Barca for selfishly taking a chance of such a social liability, they really are desperate.

      • Like ones that seem very specifically limited to the biting of people while playing soccer? More specifically defenders who are preventing him from scoring goals. This is a guy who punched a ref and got away with only a 1 game suspension in Uruguay when he was in his teens.

        I have never heard anything about any medical personnel suggesting he has say any such mental illness. Its just people making stuff up and trying to find a way to remove Suarez from Responsibility.

        Not all bad behaviour is mental illness.

      • ‘Not all bad behaviour is mental illness.’

        well, that’s true (and not what anyone is arguing)–but repeated behavior where the negative risks *far* outweigh any pontential benefit is a decent indicator.

        i’m not saying that suarez has a mental illness, but you should recognize that you stating ‘he doesn’t’ is just as baseless as ian stating ‘he does’.

      • I didn’t know you were his psychiatrist. We have absolutely no proof that he doesn’t have mental illness, just like we have no proof that he actually does. (Unless something has been released that I don’t know about.) he stated he has been working with “appropriate professionals.” Ian is not making excuses for the man. He’s just stating that it’s good that he’s getting help.

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