IN A TAW PLAYER SPECIAL Neil Atkinson speaks to the BBC’s Ben Smith who broke the latest instalment of the ongoing saga regarding Raheem Sterling and his apparent desire to leave Liverpool Football Club.
TAW PLAYER: RAHEEM STERLING TRANSFER SPECIAL
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Nice one for getting this out tonight.
I’m fairly firmly in the club’s corner on this one. I’m struggling to see what more they could have done. There’s the idea that a deal could have been struck early autumn but the club didn’t come up with the goods. Firstly, no-one really knows what was and wasn’t discussed in the autumn. Second, I’m not sure any club should feel obligated to open contract discussions with a player who is only 2 years into a 5 year deal. And 3rd, the idea that a deal could have been done sooner doesn’t chime with the player’s insistence that this is not about money anyway. I’m inclined to give Sterling at least some benefit of that doubt on that, but having done so it kinda rules out the possibility that Sterling is just going to sign a 150k per week offer made in October. If it is at least in part about his own ambitions and the club’s ability to help him achieve them (as he says) then why would he sign 10 games into the new season? That makes no sense.
Rodgers has done well by Sterling on the whole, putting is trust in him and giving him a chance when others wouldn’t have, to letting the player get some R&R in the new year.
Sterling should be careful what he wishes for. Is he really *that* much better than Walcott was at his age? That’s Walcott who can’t get a game for Arsenal.
LFC should keep him for another year. If he performs well next season his sale value will still be high with one year left on his contract. If he performs badly then no-one is going to want him anyway.
Rodgers needs to take the same stance he took with Suarez. We can’t let it be shown that LFC can be dictated to by a 21-year-old who is still more potential than he is finished product. If we didn’t let Suarez do that, we sure as hell shouldn’t let Sterling.
Unless City/Chelsea want him for 50mill. Then we bite their hand off.
The big difference with Suarez was that he bit a player and got himself suspended then while still suspended tried to force through a move to one of our rivals but the crowd still welcomed him back with open arms (not saying there is anything wrong with this mind).
Sure Sterling’s behaviour has been pretty disrespectful towards the club that brought him through but it is pretty clear this is all being driven by his agent who is in the hunt for a big transfer bonus, and we have played right into his agent’s hands by sledging him from the stands. If he was in two minds at Christmas he wouldn’t be now. Fuck loyalty if it is not a two way street.
This was the first I’d heard of this (tonight). I’m shocked but I can’t really say surprised. I think it’s just bad news on so many levels. I said last week Sterlings decision would tell me a lot about Rodgers and it has if this is anything to go by. Doesn’t sound like the harmony that comes across in Coutinho’s interview. But, I think it was clear from the BBC interview he wanted to go and go because he has ambition he doesn’t think we can match. It’s equally clear that the club have made a monumental fuck up here. Not so much regarding the 100k / 150k question but on not tying him down last season. It’s negligence. That’s how football is and footballers are. If someone becomes a star player then you pay them their worth and show them you care. The fans haven’t helped either. Take any loyalty out of his decision and it becomes a lot easier and I can’t see him feeling loyalty to our idiotic fans. So, many reasons why he’s going and all as disturbing as each other but get ready for the greedy bastard and the club’s wage structure is holding us back, only. Truth in both but certainly not the deciding factor.
This is what we are now. The signs have been there for a while but we chose to put a positive spin on things and see them as unique cases, We’re a very good stepping stone to the elite.
Although this podcast was brilliant it should really have been called the horror show special. I certainly feel gripped by fear and slightly nauseous. Fucks sake!
I honestly wouldn’t care too much if we sell him, he has never even dominated the league in any one season yet he’s asking for wages way above players who have done so
Could be Ronaldo, could be Quaresma, if he wants to leave then let him, City needs home grown players, maybe they’ll pay for fortune for him
What I’m worried about is our ability to reinvest the money we’ll get from him
Time to tell him that Jurgen Klopp’s on the way.
Last season Sterling had Suarez and Sturridge to look up to. Others played better too. For a lot of this he’s been out main man. That’s not something a 20 year old should experience at Liverpool. Or this happens.
Plus the fans hated him before any contract talks and in some ways they’ve sealed the deal.
Really? Fans hated him before contract talks? Where are these guys and why?
Pretty sure the vitriol started going his way after his BBC interview
No, it goes back further. Before crimbo last season, Sterling was quite poor. Many wanted him loaned out to some fodder club for “experience”. This is why many think he’ll amount to bugger all over time. He’s only had a few good months behind an incredible duo up front. Perhaps he’d get that back if we weren’t full with Rodgers’s shite signings. I doubt we’ll find out, not at this club.
Yes there was fans waffling about him needing a loan move after a poor performance against Hull but there was absolutely no vitriol towards him, that only came recently after news of his agents demands & the BBC interview,
I’m sick as a pig with the thought of another Summer full of transfer speculation regarding one of our better players again,
Is it any wonder that the atmosphere at matches is fading when most of us are busting a gut keeping roofs over heads And bellies full and then an unproven 20 year old says no to that money per week and belittles the clubs ambition??
Fu*k me I never thought footie would give me more grief than pleasure.
Rory Smith from the Times had one of the best comments on this. Neither side is going to come out of this looking good, and it’s hard to tell yet if Sterling is Eden Hazard or Aaron Lennon.
I tend to side with the club and would back them 100% if they decided not to sell. He is an employee with a contract and if they feel justified in making him honour that contract then fair enough. He does not have the right to set the terms of discussion but equally a large offer to sell is tempting; all teams would rather have harmony than not.
Personally I would remind Sterling that although his stats this season are among the best at the club (as Sky Sports loves highlighting) he has not outshone his team mates in an under-performing team. If he were carrying the side with 20 goals/15 assists and world class performances like Bale was at Tottenham, then I’d agree, but he has been a symptom of our mediocrity, not a sufferer. He is not the finished article, being dragged down by Liverpool; Sterling is joint 29th top goal scorer (7) and joint 16th in assists (7) in the league – stats that are par for the course in the premiership, not league-leading. Sterling is a rough diamond certainly; if Liverpool are guilty of anything it is of waiting too long to offer him terms, but £100,000 is more than enough for his current level – I’ve yet to hear a convincing argument for him deserving more.
If I were Liverpool I would make it plain:
1. He is our player for two more years and if his agitating doesn’t stop he can rot in the reserves.
2. We will not sell to a PL team.
3. Remind him that Sterling is barely good enough to be on the bench of Barca/Real/Bayern and they would be unlikely to meet his fee.
4. Re-offer the £100,000 contract (if that figure is true) but with an addendum: if we fail to get CL next season, then his buy-out is set at £40,000,000. That way we call his bluff on whether his motives are based on ‘winning’. We are a club with ambition, you can be a part of that ambition, and if we fail you next season then leave with our blessing.
5. Or rot in the reserves on £35,000 p/w (wasting about £5,000,000 since £100,000 was first offered at the start of the year) and leave in shame next summer when we are forced into selling you.
Pretty much agree with you here. We need to take a stand again. The boy is far from the superstar player he thinks he is…..yet so his loss won’t be a massive loss next season but will we live to regret it 5yrs down the line.
We should stand our ground and if he’s happy to sit around on £30+k a week instead of the £100k we’re offering then more power to him. His stock will fall and he will not get the move to a big club he thinks he will. It’s not like we forked out loads of money to get him in, any stage we sell him it will be for massive profit.
I remember when Arsenal sold a very promising young player called Nicolas Anelka then bought Henry. Situation was similar, Anelka was being a dick and the fans turned on him and he wanted to leave
Wenger was like okay, sold him and bought someone miles better at less than half the cost
Wish we can do something similar but we have no ability to spot a good buy with money
Well at least we’re half way there, Sterling is being a dick, the fans have turned on him and he wants to leave. Unfortunately I agree we lack the ability to complete the second part.
I’m just dismayed by our ability in the market atm.
The modern Wenger Arsenal exists majorly because of his shrewdness in the market during his early reign that paved the way for what the club is today. If we are to become big again we need the same, but we’ve been the opposite of that
I have no problems selling the likes of Suarez and Sterling when they wanna leave if it means we can spend properly, but we’re probably the poorest buyer in the league considering the resources available to us
Heads have to roll this summer when it comes to the transfers area
The most cogent comments about Raheem Sterling have been made by Gary Neville, in today’s Telegraph. He would not be a star at any of the EPL clubs we see as our peers (Ah, those were the days.) Maybe at WBA, or Villa, but not Chelsea or City, he’s no Hazard, and may never be. If the rumours about RM wanting him are true (and he was a RAFA signing for us) I’d rip their bloody arm off.
The continued rumours about out targeting and missing also-rans is a bit worrying. I hope we have learned a lesson and that they are just Paisleyesque smokescreens. Apart from them being ordinary players for the most part, any suggestion that we are serious about buying suggests that Rodgers is staying and that FSG are still looking for promising bargains, and that they trust Brendan and the Inepts to unearth them. If so, they can exoect calls from Nigerians looking for bank account details to deposit lots of money into. FFS.