Luis Suarez will be at Liverpool for long term, insists Ian Ayre

Luis Suarez said he would be open to offers in the summer (Reuters)

Liverpool may lose a Uruguay international this summer but they are determined it will not be star striker Luis Suarez. Managing director Ian Ayre went on the defensive after the striker suggested in an interview in his homeland that he would listen to offers from a Champions League club.

Ayre reiterated the club's intention to keep the 26-year-old at Anfield but the future of Suarez's compatriot Sebastian Coates, who has expressed dissatisfaction at a lack of playing time under manager Brendan Rodgers this season, is less clear.

The managing director said: "We've been consistent with Luis. Last summer he signed a new four-year contract and we have no desire to sell Luis. We've been very honest with him and he's been very honest with us.

"Every player is going to get approached by clubs because that is the nature of the game. They have a choice – that's part of the game. He has a four-year contract with us and we hope he will see that through. He is a fantastic player and a great contributor to our team. We are very pleased to have Luis and long may that continue."

Suarez has repeatedly stressed he is happy at Anfield, and did so in the mixed messages he issued while on World Cup qualifier duty for matches against Paraguay and Chile.

Coates said: "Luis is a star, the club identifies with him and he is very happy, the city also loves him. He is doing everything right and that's why people idolise him."

Of his own future Coates, who has featured 10 times this campaign but only three times in the Premier League, with two of those from the substitutes' bench, said: "I want to play, and most of all to be involved in the Uruguayan team like every other player.

"With that in mind I need to play, whether in Liverpool or somewhere else. I have a contract until 2016 but don't know what will happen in the future. I will wait until the end of the season and then speak to the club."