What is Liverpool Managing Director Ian Ayre thinking?

Luis Suarez has just completed a 10-match suspension and returned to action last night. And now that he’s back and that episode is over, the Reds have finally gotten a chance to wash away the Suarez storyline and to focus on the rest of their season. But Ayre speaks up in public and brings the Suarez story back into the spotlight again by saying that the Uruguayan striker has damaged Liverpool’s brand.

How is that helpful to Suarez, Brendan Rodgers, the club or its supporters? It’s counterproductive.

Ayre was speaking at the Sport Industry breakfast in London, where he said this about Suarez’s past at Liverpool:

“Any types of incident of that nature are damaging to the brand.

“As a footballer, he’s a street fighter, he’s a larger-than-life character.

“Nobody is condoning any bad behavior but it’s just something you have to deal with. He is what he is, he is the character he is, and we have to try and harness that.

“We are very much an institution and we base ourselves on family values, and when your kids are naughty you tell them off and you try to teach them the error of your ways. It’s no different.”

The timing of this speech by Ayre is awful. What is he thinking?

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