THERE are two sides to every story and I don’t believe for a minute that there aren’t things Liverpool couldn’t have done differently when it comes to the handling of Raheem Sterling over the last couple of years.
He should have had bump in his wages to reflect his status and influence in the first team, particularly when his manager described him as the “best young player in Europe”. That the club allowed him to remain on a weekly salary of c.£30,000 while Mario Balotelli trousered more than three times that figure was always putting trouble in the post. How would anyone feel in that situation?
Sterling left QPR for Liverpool for the money, the opportunity, the lure of the club, the prestige and the chance to win things. That he wants to do the same again after a season when Liverpool finished sixth should come as no great surprise and it doesn’t reflect well that nobody at the club thought to move to prevent this situation earlier.
That said, when the toys were first hurled out the pram and Sterling decided to face the BBC cameras without the permission of the club, I wanted nothing more than the club to stand up to him and his agent Aidy Ward. Why should Liverpool be bullied into submission? Player and agent wanted a fight — what else was there to think while there was still football to be played? So let’s fight then. Let’s take the Suarez stance. Make him stay. Make him play. Show that we’re a club with a pair of swingers that aren’t to be messed with.
But that was then.
Then the thinking was, well what’s he going to do once the actual football starts? Down tools? Sulk? Stand there with his hands on his hips? Surely he wouldn’t want to jeopardise his career and his public image by doing that? Frankly, now, I’m not so sure. The soap opera around Sterling has become stale. Today, with the triple whammy of ringing in sick, saying he doesn’t want to travel on the pre-season tour and getting it out there that the manager is to blame for all this rather than the lure of money — well that’s just taking the piss. A distraction Liverpool, and Brendan Rodgers, don’t need.
Sterling is a talented player, and anyone suggesting otherwise is plain wrong — think back to his Liverpool form in the second half of 2013-14 for a reminder of what he can do. But this isn’t ending in any other way than him going to Manchester City. It can’t now. Liverpool need to get the best possible fee for him and move on. Fast. Make him train on his own in the meantime. And take pictures of him doing it. The outcast. Two can play the PR game.
Talk is that Liverpool will insist he goes on tour and he will face disciplinary action if he doesn’t. All well and good. But it’s just delaying the inevitable. He should never be allowed near the shirt again.
When Liverpool dug their heels in over Suarez and Arsenal it was celebrated and rightly so. The difference then was the player in question. Think what you like about Suarez — and I’m not the biggest fan of the person — but you knew from his performances on the pitch that he would struggle to go through the motions no matter what. It’s not in his make up; he’s a winner and he wants passionately to win every time he takes to the field. Whoever it’s for and whatever the circumstance. So it proved.
Sterling had his head turned a long time ago. After today’s events his position at Liverpool is untenable. I liked Sterling, and hoped this situation could somehow still resolve itself. It’s not easy to find footballers of that age with that talent, hence the persistent pursuit from City. But the liking and the hoping are very much past tense now. He’s ruined his public perception, his reception at Anfield would now be poisonous and there’s simply no way back. Blame the agent all you like — and he warrants criticism — but ultimately he is his client’s master. England fans booed Sterling recently and that won’t be the first time. He can expect stick wherever he goes from now on. And that’s all of his own doing, aided and abetted by the man he employs, Aidy Ward.
“I don’t want to be perceived as a 20-year-old money-grabber but as the kid that loves to play football,” Sterling said in April. Good luck with that. Sterling will from this point forward be forever perceived as a (C)Ashley Cole MkII.
What matters now is Liverpool. The start to the season is always important, particularly so for the manager this year. The Ward and Sterling sideshow can’t be allowed to affect the focus. And a 20-year-old lad who has publicly criticised the manager in tow will do just that.
Most of those that would know suggested Sterling was going to City anyway this summer so what’s the point in the latest episode? Today is just the latest in a string of unnecessary mini-dramas. It’s unprofessional from the player and unprofessional from the agent.
The bid that seals his move away from Anfield can’t come quick enough. Ta-ra, Raheem.
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Oddly enough, I’ve never felt the anger toward him that other fans have, having decided that his agent is the prime mover behind everything Sterling does.
I’m just starting to feel embarrassed for him now.
I’ll hazard a guess and say City have told his agent they aren’t prepared to go to 50m, so if he wants a move he’ll have work a little harder to destroy the relationship with Liverpool a little bit more in the hope that Liverpool will accept 40-45m.
I could be made to look silly tomorrow when he packs his tackle and heads off, but I get the feeling that JWH may just dig in his heels and tell Sterling he is not for sale at any price.
Yes, the club will lose money in the short term, but over the journey it will let agents know that the club can’t be fucked with.
Raheem Sterling employs his agent. If he wasn’t happy with how he was being represented he could find another one.
I think it’s fairly obvious, Sterling’s set the agenda and his agent has set the policy of how to implement that agenda. Both snakes.
Fair enough. I didn’t put that point across very well, methinks.
Sterling’s agent is the prime mover behind everything he does, but he does it with Sterling’s full and enthusiastic cooperation.
Or, to put it another way, if Sterling’s agent was the Dalai Llama, Sterling would now be volunteering to play for a minimum wage, all of which he would donate to charity.
He is easily influenced, I guess is what I am trying to say.
The news that Berahino has dumped Ward adds an extra dimension to the latest developments too. Sterling is now Ward’s primary meal ticket as the only real high profile talent on his books.
He NEEDS to engineer a move for Sterling, hence the sudden turning up the volume in terms of ‘no tour’, ‘I’m sick’, ‘I won’t play for Rodgers’ schtick.
I don’t buy this ‘misguided young player being manipulated’ shit. Sterling gave interviews that were spontaneous – not scripted by his agent.
A good player who has flaws and stopped evolving last year, for whatever reason. Reportedly not happy playing for Rodgers, but do what? I cannot abide Rodgers myself but that is a ridiculous reason to cite as your desire to go and play for a club whose own manager was reportedly vulnerable. For all his faults, I doubt Rodgers kicked a boot into Sterlings face.
Many posters want him to rot in the rezzies.u view is that we should take him at the flood – anything over 40 mil. My feeling is he won’t ride the crest to glory. Wright-Phillips didn’t; Francis Jeffers didn’t; young Ince hasnt( back in the day, Alun Evans didn’t; lapsed Scouser Rooney dud but he’s s rarity.
Sell him. He’s a boil that needs to be lanced.
While I don’t disagree with your sentiments, it was pretty clear to me that his BBC interview was scripted by his agent. Just look at the way he looks at someone behind the camera before he launches into his spiel about not feeling like there are people at the club he can look up to.
Good article – The money (if £50m is on the table) is too good to ignore for me.
I empathised with Sterling a lot in the beginning. As many pundits have commented, if we’d waved £75,000 p/w at him last summer we probably wouldn’t be having this discussion. Liverpool waited too long to get him to the negotiating table, but both his, and his agents actions from then until now are unacceptable.
Sterling can’t be held to account for some of the tactics being used by his agent but he is ultimately accountable for who speaks for him, and how that reflects on his relationship with the club and fans – Aidy Ward is an employee of Raheem Sterling, not the other way around.
If it is about money then the £100,000 purported to have been offered is more than fair and would make him one of LFC’s top earners, as well as one of the best paid 20-year-olds in the world. Sterling is one of the brightest young footballers in Europe, but your salary reflects your performance, not your potential. He was joint 31st on the list of top scorers and joint 16th in assists last season. Meaning 30 and 15 people had better stats (there’s bound to be crossover but the point is the same); how many of them are on over £100,000, let alone the £150,000 Aidy Ward is reportedly fishing for? His stats are excellent for a developing player but not world class.
I don’t think many fans would mind if his desire is genuinely only fuelled by winning. The problem is that all this agitating started in the middle of a season where Sterling was still able to win trophies, but was a key figure in the team complicit in failing to deliver those trophies. If you want to leave to compete then fine, but give everything, all-season-long so no one can criticise you for not performing, then say you want to leave for trophies.
If Sterling were in a similar situation to Bale a couple of seasons ago, essentially carrying Liverpool with goals and assists and winning matches single-handedly then I’d wish him well, but he seems like a bright spark yet to burst into flame; an excitable youngster who is believing the hype of his agent, wanting the trophy before he has earned it. He has certainly not outgrown LFC just yet and if Rodwell and the like are anything to go by then he should be in no hurry to.
Best young player in Europe. Best British player for next 5 years. Already a very good player, potential to be absolutely exceptional. Exactly the type of talent we should want to bring to Anfield, never mind getting rid.
He’s a silly little cunt. No doubt. Stupid, arrogant, badly advised, slight touch of nastiness. And what? So are most footballers his age. Even ones with not half his ability.
Bottom line here is he has no faith in Rodgers. He knows the manager is a bluffer and a bullshitter. He knows he isn’t the only player to think it. He knows he wasn’t the only player to down tools last season. That is why he wants out so desperately.
So much for Rodgers being this great coach of young players. So much for Rodgers being the type of coach players want to play for. His best players want to leave and others have either got worse (Moreno, Lovren, Mignolet, Borini, Allen, Markovic, Can, Sahin and even Sakho etc etc) or had their progress stifled. People think Rodgers is a good coach of young players because he’s given some a chance. Thats not how it works. Many improve naturally. How about his handling of Brannagan and worse, Brad Smith, to see what Rodgers has done with young players?
This Sterling situation was simple for FSG to sort out but as they do, they missed a great opportunity to bring (or capitalize on) a feel good factor back to (or at) LFC.
Sack Rodgers. Employ Klopp. Give Sterling £120k per week and a buy-out clause of £50m if we don’t reach top 4 in 2015/16 if he doesn’t think Klopp is for him. If we do and he plays 20 league games he gets a £1m bonus. Everyone wins. Assure him we have every intention of competing for major honours. Point to signing of Lacazette to prove it, not a no-name Brazilian very few had heard of before we paid £10m too much on him and in a position we already have too many players for, or Benteke for similar money. (Imagine being Sterling and seeing your manager determined to spend £30m on Benteke when the same amount gets Lacazette!)
But no. They decided he was to be sold months ago. Because the £35-40m we’ll end up with for him isn’t going to be wasted, right? Because we have a tremendous record in buying players under FSG, right? Because we can get better than him, right?
Also, the idiocy of our supporters shows no signs in relenting. Egg’d on of course by the Carra’s disingenuous/utterly moronic (its one or the other) post today on kicca, a lot of reds are furious with Sterling. Carra says “….doesn’t reflect well on Raheem. He’s starting to get a reputation that could be hard to rid himself of in the future, are Man City fans looking at the situation and thinking this could be us in a few years?”
Yes of course Carra, because Lovren doing WORSE to Southampton last summer had such a negative effect on our pursuit of him (wish it fucking had) and his “reputation,” which I doubt very much many footballers could give two fucks about anyway. They want paid as much as possible and they want to go to clubs where they have greater chances of winning things.
Sterling wants to leave and he’ll get to leave, but only because FSG made wrong decisions. This was recoverable. Rooney handed in a transfer request. Gerrard too. No one ever talks about it.
Just think what it will be like in 2 years time when Sterling is scoring 20, assisting 30 and in the top 3 players in Europe. Whilst wearing blue instead of red. And remember we let it happen.
“Also, the idiocy of our supporters shows no signs in relenting”.
No shit!
Nailed it there mate!
Excellent response Leanne.
We keep pissing players off constantly.
Then there’s Milner on £150 k a week. For what? An over the hill bit part player. Still no striker!! But it’s ok. It’s all been Sterings fault all this time. Not Rodgers. Silly me.
Laughable response. There is no evidence whatsoever to support the above viewpoint, except that the person writing it has a hate-filled bias against Brendan Rodgers and is using the latest Sterling tantrum to justify personal opinion. Robin Crime’s succinct reply says it well. Pure idiocy, when every photo all last season shows the manager giving Sterling nothing but support — more than to any other player. Fans like this should really follow Raheem to his next club because they aren’t Liverpool supporters.
No evidence that players downed tools for Rodgers last season? Are you for real? What club were you watching in the last 2 months of last season?
No evidence Sterling doesn’t want to play for Rodgers? What, apart from the reports in the papers clearly leaked by his agent (again)?
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/452652/Raheem-Sterling-Brendan-Rodgers-Liverpool
So much so that we had to deny that thats the case?
http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11669/9906665/raheem-sterling-wont-play-for-brendan-rodgers-according-to-sky-sources
No evidence players haven’t regressed under Rodgers? You watch Moreno for Sevilla? Or Markovic for Benfica? Or Lallana for Southampton? Or Sakho for France? Or Mignolet for Sunderland? Or Balotelli for Inter/Man City/AC/Italy?
No evidence that Carra and Liverpool fans’ reaction is idiotic and hypocritical when you see comments last summer regarding Lovren/Southampton and this summer regarding Benteke/Villa? Of course, no evidence for any of this.
Only, I’ve just given you the evidence. And you don’t like it because as a Brendan Rodgers supporter, you don’t like reality. Like a Brendan Rodgers supporter, you have your head stuck in the sand. When confronted with anything that shows Rodgers making a balls of things, you stick your fingers in the air and scream “lalalalalala I can’t hear you”
Stoke 6-1 Liverpool. Didn’t happen. (And if it did, Saint Brendan had nothing to do with it)
I wondered what happened to Nigel Pearson after he left Leicester.
Nigel is that you?
Problem here is where would Raheem be without BR and LFC? Probably rotting on some other teams bench or being loaned out constantly by Chel$ea.
The hate of BR by some of our “supporters” is laughable.
So in 13/14 when Sterling scores against Norwich, runs past everyone and jumps into Rodgers arms what was that about? Just him rubbing his balls on him as a sign of dominance?
Ward is a complete loser and Sterling a fool for listening to him.
I’d wager that Sterling will get that song from the Kop after all.
I personally think it is stupid how sterling’s agent his made all of this public as is does not reflect well on Sterling, but he has done this to give sterling more leverage to move. Unfortunately we have to accept that signing for Man City will have more lure to Sterling, just like when we sign players from the likes of Southampton, Burnley and Villa. Players from these clubs are moving to us for a chance of winning trophies and in most cases a pay increase
I personally think a fee of £50 million represents very good business for Liverpool as Sterling is a very good player but that amount does seems inflated for a player that had an outstanding half a season two seasons ago and just a decent season last season. If we don’t get the amount we are looking for then digging our heels and telling him he will rot in reserves should be a way of ensuring he performs as I can’t imagine City or other tops clubs wanting to touch him in 2 years’ time if he has not been performing, ultimately we should be able to turn this into a win-win situation
Leanne (or Raheem) – this all sounds great. your argument has one (or more) glaring hole in it. if Rodgers is such a knob, how is it that he has the backing of Steven Gerrard (“if Brendan and I were together earlier in my career, we’d have many more trophies”), Henderson (new captain), Clyne, Milner, etc. for every Raheem there are 5x more players who do want to play for Rodgers and wear the Liverpool shirt. bottom line is, Raheem doesn’t want to be here so he can right fuck off. it’s a privilege to don the Liverbird and play at a professional level, not a prison sentence. get off your high horse.
I’ll assume he’s going, and as per the article it is probably best for the good of the team preseason blah blah (despite the vindictive part of me really wanting him to be made to suffer on 35k ) but I absolutely hope that LFC get the full asking price. if we cave in for 40m or so due to his petulant behaviour then we’ll have set a presendence for this and Sterling & Ward will have “won” Aidy Ward must be pretty confident City are reaching for the cheque book or that LFC will cave otherwise a pretty sticky situation. In JWH’s hands, here’s hoping he does the right thing and stands by his price tag.
In my head he’s already gone but I still believe we should hold out for the price we want. If he really wants to go let him hand in his transfer request then.
I wouldn’t take him out on the tour with the team anyway at this stage. He’d just be a disruptive influence and the management team can focus solely on who does want to play for us. Leave him at home, dock his wages and make him train with the reserves or even better on his own.
Rodgers or Sterling?
I’ll get yer coat Brendan.
Before this latest incident I had given up on Sterling and expected him to go sooner rather than later. I wasn’t bothered anymore. No player, no matter how talented, is too important for this club. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, and all that.
But this latest mischief was too much. Unacceptable behaviour. I suspect very little has and will change concerning the outcome of it all. I think he will still leave in time for the new season, and that Man City will have to cough up whatever we demand for the kid. But I personally think the player and his cunt of agent should be punished for this by forcing the player to stay. Put him on the bench and let him face to fury of Anfield, if only as an example to others who might consider making themselves impossible in the future.
This is Liverpool Football Club. We can’t tolerate this shenanigans.
The idiocy and venality of Aidy Ward aside, you do have to wonder why the player is so absolutely desperate to leave the club to the point of having an almost public temper tantrum, particularly as he must know the presence Liverpool has in the media. (Suarez did similar but at least he had the sense to save his words until he was far away on international duty, and in the end ‘that season’ restored his reputation, and he was allowed to go without rancour.) In general the club is a past master at gaining control of the narrative in moments like this which is all to the good, but Sterling’s desperation and comments indicate that not all is well in the state of Denmark.
If everything was so rotten in Denmark, then surely Sterling would be heading a long queue of players desperate to leave, no?
There are always going to be disgruntled players in any squad, however Sterling appears to be the only one throwing his toys out of the pram.
I’d venture that the state of Denmark is in pretty good shape, but young Hamlet is having a bit of a crisis.
… I agree with Hazel many players stopped playing for him hoping to get him tin tacked. He managed to blarney the Boston Beanheads for another season but its shit or bust for him now he is fast running out of excuses and fall guys
The irony is Stirling (Aideyed & abetted by Ward) is now the most despised player at Anfield since …anyone. Pitting himself opposite the manager has given Rodgers a massive PR boost.