By Ian Ladyman
PUBLISHED: 17:45 EST, 31 January 2013 | UPDATED: 17:45 EST, 31 January 2013
Right at the end of the interview, Luis Suarez delivers the line that will bring some light to a rather dark week at Liverpool Football Club.
Asked what he will do if Liverpool do not qualify for the Champions League this season, Suarez is cryptic at first. And then, unexpectedly, categorical.
'I will wait until the end of the season and see how we are doing,' he says. 'We won't know until then how we are doing and what our position is so I am prepared to wait until that time.
Keeping count: Luis Suarez eyes his season's tally of 17 Premier League goals, notched on the post
'But I want to say now that, if you want to know what will happen to me if we don't qualify for the Champions League, then I will say this: I have a contract with Liverpool and I am very happy here. 'I will stay.'
Suarez has said some peculiar things during his Anfield stay but here, in a small interview room at the club's Melwood training centre, the Uruguayan is right on message. It is perhaps as well.
There have been times this season when one wonders exactly what would have happened to Liverpool had it not been for their remarkable striker.
Suarez is the kid who used to pretend to be Liverpool manager on his PlayStation back home in South America, the kid whose dream came true.
On target: The Uruguyan scored in Liverpool's 2-2 draw with Arsenal on Wednesday night at the Emirates Stadium
In 84 games in his two years at Anfield, the 26-year-old has scored 43 goals. Much has been said and written about him during this time that has not been about his football. Although inevitable, given what has happened, it is also unfortunate when he remains one of the most remarkable talents in the game.
Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard paid his team-mate - and the man who captained the side in Gerrard's absence last weekend - the most striking tribute, telling newspapers Suarez is the best centre forward he has featured alongside in his decade-and-a-half in professional football.
When I mention to Suarez that this moves to one side players such as Michael Owen, Robbie Fowler, Fernando Torres and, with England, Wayne Rooney, he puffs out his cheeks. Briefly, he looks like that teenager at home in Montevideo again.
'I get goose pimples when I hear he said that,' said Suarez. 'In my country, we call it Carne de Gallina. Like the skin of a chicken. That's how I feel.
'Gerrard is such a good player and what he said about me I will never forget. It's unbelievable. He has such a good record over many years in the English game and is a great example to all the players here, especially to me.
'We all respect him. He has won almost everything and if anything goes wrong on the pitch he never tells the players off. He just speaks to them afterwards and when he speaks to them you can take it as a fact that he is right. He is just trying to help people.
High five: Steven Gerrard described Suarez as the best centre forward he has featured alongside in his career
'Steven has also said things to me in private that I will never forget, about things that have happened and things that I can do here. These are conversations that players have. People don't hear them but they are so important. They make a difference to a person like me, to my career and my life.
'The ones we had are private but say everything about him. Steven has given me motivation to carry on and do well with what he has said. He has helped me hugely.'
The last time Liverpool came close to winning the Barclays Premier League, in 2009, Gerrard's relationship with Torres almost got them home. Four seasons on, the Gerrard-Suarez axis is just as important, even if the team's current horizons are more modest.
Suarez rightly hopes his time at Anfield may bring him a league title. He is contracted until the summer of 2016. For Gerrard, though, time is beginning to run out.
Surprise: Suarez is stunned that Liverpool captain Gerrard has never won a championship during his career
'It's incredible that Steven hasn't won a championship,' said Suraez. 'Crazy. It must be like having a fishbone stuck in his throat. It is permanently irritating to him. I can't really believe it. You still have to recognise he is an outstanding player.
'He is a legend in the club and has lifted the Champions League for this club. That makes him special. After all, how many players in Europe have actually done that?'
As we talk - with the help of an interpreter - Suarez pours water from a flask to make the traditional South American hot drink Mate (pronounced mah-te).
'It wakes me up in the morning,' he says. On the flask is a sticker carrying the name and face of his two-year-old daughter, Delfina. More observant readers will realise the name is an anagram of Anfield. That is a coincidence but the fact Suarez kisses the right wrist every time he scores a goal is not.
Family matters: Suarez poses with his wife, Sofia and partner, Delfina at Anfield
'I kiss the back of my ring finger first of all,' he said. 'That's because of my wife and all I owe her. Then I kiss the wrist because I have my daughter's name there on a tattoo.'
View the video below and you will see a wonderfully moving video of Suarez and young Delfina. In the clip, she is standing on her father's knee in the Main Stand at Anfield. As You'll Never Walk Alone drifts from the public address system, the toddler holds aloft a Liverpool scarf.
'She is two-and-a-half and she can sing the complete song in English, the complete song,' said Suarez with a laugh.
'I haven't taught her it, honestly. She learned it by coming to matches. She has always come, even as a baby.
Celebration: Suarez kisses his ring finger in tribute to his wife and then his wrist where he has the name of his daughter tattooed
'Now she likes to have a scarf, too, so that she can wave it at the start when everybody sings. My wife, Sofia, and her always come to the home matches, whatever time they are. That's important to me. They are the most important people to watch me.
'It's especially important for my little girl to see her papa at work. She was actually very good for me and helpful during my difficult times here in England as when I came home - no matter what had happened - she was there welcoming me with a smile. These are the things that I never forget.'
Love story: Suarez and his partner have known each other since they were teenagers
The tale of Suarez's courtship with Sofia is a love story in the traditional sense. Having met her when they were teenagers, Suarez - whose parents had separated - was so poor as a young player at Nacional that he found ingenious ways to sustain what was a fragile courtship.
'When I was playing for Nacional in Montevideo, the players who lived outside the city would be given money by the club to get there and back on the bus,' he said.
'I lived in Montevideo, though, so I never got any money. I was not entitled. 'Sometimes, though, I would tell them a little lie. I would say I had to make a journey to see someone in my family. I would get the money and that would enable me and Sofia to go out for dinner.'
Despite his efforts, the night Sofia prepared to travel to Barcelona to study was still a desperate one. The young couple wept together at a bus stop.
'We started when we were very young,' he said. 'It was difficult as I had no money to support us and when she went to Barcelona I had no money to go with her. I didn't even have enough money to communicate with her while she was there.'
Ultimately, Suarez's move to Dutch club Groningen in 2006 kick-started his career and saved his relationship. Given 12 days off on arrival to settle in, he instead travelled to Barcelona. He returned 10 days later with Sofia in tow and the couple have never looked back. It is a relationship that sustains him.
It is not hard to wonder how he would have coped during the troubles of the last 18 months had he been simply another young footballer alone in a foreign city.
Net gains: The Liverpool striker scores against Arsenal stopper Wojciech Szczesny on Wednesday night
'We had some hard times when we were young but we have conquered those problems,' he said.
'She is special and it's an important relationship in lots of ways. She can he hard with me, though.
'Sofia says that when she sees me with such anger on the field, people will think I am like that at home and think I am always an angry person. Of course, at home I am different. I am completely calm but she thinks people won't know that.
'She does tell me off when I misbehave on the field and I hope that has helped me become calmer. I much prefer being told off by Brendan Rodgers than by my wife. Brendan is more careful than my wife with what he says.'
On the Monday morning we meet, Liverpool are reflecting on a defeat the previous day by Oldham in the FA Cup. Later that day, Rodgers is to use a press conference to leave a sizeable lump of criticism at the door of his younger players. Suarez is not included in the criticism. He had scored, just as he did on Wednesday at Arsenal. He may have erred at times in England but he has dragged his club manfully through the first half of the season with performances that make you wonder what he may achieve if Rodgers can surround him with the players he needs.
I ask Suarez why Liverpool are yet to beat anybody better than Sunderland in the league this season and whether some team-mates share the desire to scavenge for points the way he does.
'This is the way it is at the moment,' he said. 'Sometimes we play well, as good as being in the top four of the Premier League. Then other times we don't play anywhere near as well. It's just one of those things with football. As a player I just want to win every match but sometimes we just don't play well enough.
'Every player feels differently about playing football. We are all different people. I am the type who wants to win all the time. I hate to lose. What I can say is the younger players here are very good and the good thing is that many of them are home grown. That means they have a passion for the club. I am sure they are doing the best they can.
'This year we are playing well against lower teams and are winning. Last year we were not winning those type of games.
Partnership: Brendan Rodgers will be integral to Suarez's future at Liverpool
'We are hoping we can do better against the big teams. If we do we have a chance. We have to become stronger in our minds.
'Look at the Manchester United game (Liverpool lost 2-1). The second half at United was actually very good. We were better than them. In that moment, mentally we were very good and this is the way we should play every week. We actually left the stadium happy, even though we lost.
'We would like to qualify for the Champions League if possible. If we are able to do that the title will be something for the future.
'The culture of the manager here is good. The players like the way he makes us play and once the players become more mature they will be able to win the championship.'
Suarez's relationship with Rodgers will clearly be key to his future at Anfield in many ways. The Liverpool manager has sought to educate his star player in different ways this season.
'All my managers have asked me not to talk so much on the field,' he said. 'I used to gesture quite a lot during matches. Many managers have told me to behave better on the field and that is good.
'Myself, though, my style of playing is to show my passion and that is the way I am. I will never allow that to be taken out of me.
'I have much to thank Brendan for, though, and he knows how much I appreciate this. He always praises me in public and that helps me a lot. It takes some pressure off me.
'This is really a great club. From being a young boy people want to play here. That's why I came here. It's a dream come true.
'You can ask my friends and my brothers and they will tell you. Four or five years ago I always played as Liverpool when I was on the PlayStation. Of course I used to win all the matches. 'In real life, it's harder..'
VIDEO: Daddy's girl Delfina sings Liverpool's anthem 'You'll Never Walk Alone'
Luis Suarez is Liverpool's top scorer and wears the adidas adiZero F50, the top scoring boot in the Premier League. All four of the league's top-scoring strikers wear adidas boots. Join in the conversation @adidasuk
Good Buy, but without a strong DM, the defense remain exposed
- Adoniah , Kampala, 01/2/2013 06:46
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