I was prepared to do anything to prevent Luis Suarez from joining Arsenal: Steven Gerrard

Former Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard has revealed that he had played his part in preventing Uruguayan forward Luis Suarez from joining Arsenal in the summer of 2013.

Suarez was desperate to join Arsenal two years ago, but Liverpool refused to accept the bid, forcing Suarez to eventually stay at Anfield for one more season. However, according to Gerrard, things were more complicated than it seemed.

"Before the meeting, you had Luis Suarez training on his own in the afternoon at Melwood. Brendan's relationship with Luis had broken down. I don't think it was Brendan's fault. Luis wanted to move on, to play Champions League football and he had people in his ear and people around him forcing him to make moves that maybe he didn't really want to do," Gerrard told BT Sport.

"So I think it was just a case of being in the middle and trying to heal that relationship with him and Brendan and get him training with the first team again and just chatting to Luis and saying to him, is it Arsenal that you really want or do you want Real Madrid or Barca? That was the jist of the conversation, because I knew, deep down that him and his family wanted Barcelona rather than Arsenal," he added.

Gerrard admitted that none of them wanted the Uruguayan to leave Liverpool, as he was their strongest player, and his transfer to Arsenal would have bolstered the rival team.

"For me and all the Liverpool supporters and Liverpool people it made no sense at all, him going to Arsenal because it would have made them an awful lot stronger. When you lose someone like Luis Suarez it makes you an awful lot weaker, so for me, I was prepared to do anything it took to try and make that not happen," the LA Galaxy midfielder explained.

(With inputs from ANI)