I DON’T have heroes. I’m 52 — I’m too old for heroes now. I can see the faults in most people — that they’re just people with the same faults as the rest of us and the same ability to be pretty decent or a bit of a knob depending on circumstances. They’re as capable of letting you down as anybody else
Except Kenny. Obviously. Kenny will always be my hero for every single reason that he’ll always be yours. Doesn’t matter how old I live to be — Kenny will always be my hero. Kenny’s never let me down.
I don’t believe in role models, either. Not famous ones. Why would you base your life skills on those of somebody who doesn’t live your life?
If you’re taking a Kardashian (whatever that actually is) or a Kanye as your choice of template for your daily existence then, soz, you’re doing your daily existence all wrong.
You want role models? Look to real people. Look to your family. Famous people? Nah. Footballers as role models? Out-of-touch young millionaires who have had their every need serviced since they first had a birthday that contained the suffix ‘teen’ as examples? No. Don’t do it.
At their worst, they have a thoroughly skewed view of life. At their best, they’re just lads who are still young and might make the odd mistake and might listen to their mates when they shouldn’t and might take the wrong advice and might, themselves, have the wrong role models to look to.
I’d love to feel sorry for Raheem Sterling. There’s part of me that thinks he’s just this lad and might not be that sharp and people may be taking advantage of his skills for their own ends and he may come to regret some of the decisions he’s made. But then there’s this other part that think he put himself here — put himself where he is, wanted more than he had, and he can take the consequences.
Last night was glorious, wasn’t it? Utterly glorious. There may not be a piece of silverware at the end of a game like that but there’s a marker laid down — a statement of intent and ability.
There’s a ‘we hated Sunday and we’re going to make you bastards suffer for that’ edge to it. There’s a definite touch of ‘we’ve learned what it feels like to lose and we’re going to use that feeling to make sure that we never feel it again’ running through the whole evening’s performance.
There’s the moment when the City fans — those that could be bothered travelling the twenty-eight miles or so to watch their team try to claw its way back into the title race — stop singing about “Raheem winning the League Cup” and “Ste Gerrard, Gerrard slipping and falling on his arse” (while not appreciating that Gerrard has the one trophy that dream of and not appreciating they’re only Man City and that, if the city council hadn’t given them a lovely shiny new stadium to play in for free, they would still be that old Man City with the stupid inflatable sodding bananas and the oil dollars would never have come anywhere near them and we’d probably all still be relatively okay with them) and realise that the league has just disappeared into the distance and they’re not getting back into that one.
There’s that moment when they realise — I presume they have — that they spent £50million on Sterling and £60m on DeBruyne and they’ve got the League Cup to show for it.
Sorry, got sidelined. Raheem. I was getting to the Raheem issue wasn’t I? £50m. What do you get for £50m nowadays? The potential of a decent player who still doesn’t consistently impact games when his team most needs him to.
So you get the fact that he could have been City’s hero at Wembley, could have rubbed our noses in his own abilities. IF he’d worked on his finishing since he moved. IF he could be relied on to put the ball in the back of the net. A year on from deciding that he wanted to leave us and could anybody say that he’s progressed? Really? At all?
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The abuse that Sterling took with every touch last night was expected and brought about by both his and his agent’s behaviour in the summer.
Change your story and your stance often enough and there’s every chance that we might think you’re not quite being straight about something. Manipulate BBC interviews to set yourself up as harshly treated and claim that you’re not about the money in a way that tells the world the exact opposite and we may not trust everything you say.
I don’t feel proud about this, and I’m not saying it in order to put forward a message of, ‘look, I kind of knew all along, look how right I was. I, my friends, am ITfuckingK’ but, when Raheem first broke into the team, I had a conversation with a colleague about his abilities and about whether we had a new hero, a new figurehead.
“I just have this feeling,” I said, “that he’s just not a particularly nice kid.”
Told you, it’s not a nice thing to say and I don’t know the lad and maybe it’s that old Scouse thing of not taking to Southerners who look as though they may be a little bit flash in their ways (and that’s not ALL Southerners, I have some very nice mates from the South — I’m thinking of the sort of lads who go to West ‘aaaaam and flash fivers at the fans in the away end) but I just didn’t feel right about him.
It’s probably the modern equivalent of the Robbie Fowler/Michael Owen situation.
I’m not suggesting for one second that Owen was flash or duplicitous or unpleasant — I think the worst that can be levelled at the lad is that he’s a bit dull and should probably not talk about footie on the telly.
That, and he made some very bad decisions in his career. Real, Newcastle, United. Bad decisions like that. I reckon, deep down — and possibly not even that deep if we’re honest — he knows that he got each one of those wrong.
I reckon he knows that there are many who hate him for those decisions and I reckon he knows that there are many who never took to him while he played for us.
My kids were told to dress for school as a character from a book. James had an idea! #WorldBookDay pic.twitter.com/53Fjn5Ihyy
— michael owen (@themichaelowen) March 3, 2016
I never got that myself. I was looking at this lad on the field who was probably the best in the world at putting the ball in the back of the net — we should have worshipped him. But. But. He wasn’t one of us.
Robbie was one of us but Michael made comments about his England career and the rest of the country thought of him as an England player first and then, only then — if at all — a Liverpool player.
Meanwhile, England weren’t actually intelligent enough to use Robbie as they should have. So we refused to love Michael Owen, never allowed him to be a true hero, a true legend. He know this, he’s an intelligent lad. I think he probably regrets it.
I don’t think Raheem regrets much. I don’t think he regrets last night. He’ll think we’re wrong but still….that cheer when the substitution was announced? That moment when we knew that Pellegrini had pulled him and that Flanno had won? That moment when it was apparent that doing a Carra on him in the first minute, being applauded by your captain as he surged past you, was a really good idea. Quite surprised to be honest; I though he was having a decent game on the whole. Thought he was giving Flanno problems in the first half and young Jon had the most comfortable second half any player has ever had in their lives. Think Pellegrini got it wrong.
Or maybe he got it right, maybe the lad’s head had gone. Kind of hope it was the latter. Which is also not a very nice thing to admit. Bit vindictive on the whole.
Tell you this though — the City fans don’t like him either. We may be treating him with the kind of vitriol that we reserve for the likes of…well, just Wayne Rooney if we’re honest.
He’s at a Rooney-esque level of hatred and that’s quite impressive for such a young lad, but the City fans don’t get him. They don’t rate him. They don’t see what they’ve paid for. They’re not seeing £50m on the pitch. Well, they are, but it doesn’t look like £50m.
Me and our kid were in that lovely large queue to get to Wembley station on Sunday evening and I was doing the Twitter thing and I came across this tweet from a betting company: “Trophies won in 2015/16 — Raheem Sterling 1 Liverpool 0.” I read it to our Kev and I appended the reasonable comment: “Well, they can fuck right off.”
And the woman next to me turned and said: “Never mind, you can still beat United for us next week.” And patted my back.
In fairness, she seemed quite nice. Not a Manc accent but she could have been a fan in the ‘normal old City’ years.
Avoiding the obvious: “I have personal space issues, love, and I don’t know you, don’t touch me” or “You’ve just won a cup, why are you out here next to me given that I left as the last pen hit the net, shouldn’t you still be in there?” arguments, I went instead with: “The point I was actually making was about (Betfair? Bettered? Freebet? Whoever) thinking that match had anything to do with Sterling.”
And we entered into a conversation that revolved around me saying “we knew that he was still only potential, nothing more” and her saying “you can have him back if you like” and our Kev quietly demurring on the offer. Which probably wasn’t hers to make, to be honest.
But it’s there, isn’t it? They don’t particularly like him, they don’t rate him, they don’t see what difference he makes.
As of last night they’ve looked at us, seen that we’ve stopped their league dreams, seen that we’ve faced them three times this season, have won two and drawn one and scored eight goals to their two and they’ve looked at this lad who spent the second 45 minutes on the bench watching his old team take apart the new team that he supposedly moved to for glory.
And there may be the chance that Pep will come in next season and drag every ounce of potential out of Raheem and make him a star. At which point he’ll probably look for the move to Real or Barca. What he won’t make him is a hero. Heroes do everything for their team while others look for the next move, the next chance, the next opportunity.
Raheem is currently residing in the world of the Rodwell, the Moses, the Zaha; the players who could have been worshipped, could have been legends but wanted more.
I’d love to feel sorry for Raheem Sterling. I don’t.
Good piece. I’m 57 so fully get the point about “heroes”. And Kenny. Mind you, for all Owen’s dodgy Club decisions, I loved him that day in Cardiff in May 01.
Great read!
Loved Owen when he was banging in the goals and he’s not the worst pundit in the world, not as annoying as twats like Wright, Shearer and Savage.
He was one of ours once, won games for us and then made some bad decisions after we’d had his best years.Ditto Torres.With £50m on top.
As for Sterling, he was one of ours who has made bad decisions before we’ve had his best years, with £50m on top again. I don’t feel any real animosity towards him. The money was too good to turn down. He’s a very talented kid but not a natural finisher.His career could go either way now but I couldn’t care less.
Excellent, piece!
Do you ever think he might grow up, realise he mistook money for glory, and come back redeemed? I used to entertain that prodigal son fantasy about Torres whenever I saw how miserable he looked n blue.
I suspect you’re probably right about the Real route to perdition , though.
Yep, this is a great write up…
Never fancied Sterling, he just never resonates with a team or their fans..
Agree completely on that analogies. Great piece!
Just on the council gave City a shiny new stadium and everything changed from there, anyone else think the same thing could happen with West Ham or is it just me?
No, I was talking to a West Ham fan on Sunday who is exactly of the same mind, that’s what they’re hoping for. (Tory government and Tory run council gives club run by Tory per a free ground, Tory peer sells to Saidi investors for huge profit – who would ever suspect that happening?)
They’re already a decent team, with this extra leg up and being a London club it’s only a matter of time before some billionaire buys them out.
Never a truer word written Ian….
Great article captures the mood spot on. Loved the Kenny pieces I am 53 and fell out of love with him when he resigned, how stupid was I, realised he really was my hero on a phone in when some Geordie Tosser said he wasn’t fit to manage their club. The only time I have ever phoned a radio station and I tore the Goerdie to shreds. Love and hero worship rekindled, never looked back since.
Newham is a labour run council.
With Labour MPs
Also – Karren Brady doesn’t own West ham – so has no ability to sell the club.
Truth is that he’s never looked as good under Pellegrini as he did under Rodgers. Certainly never as trusted. But Rodgers encouraged his brain and strength to go with that speed. At City he’s another Jesus Navas. And just as loved.
What brain?
The brain that tore apart Man United at Old Trafford as the tip of the diamond. That’s a good start.
Had we invested in a proper elite striker rather than Balotelli, someone who pushed Sterling down the pecking order, things wouldn’t have turned out as they did.
I’m not saying he’s not a right little pr!ck, but I’m not foolish enough to pretend like he’s rubbish. Wasted out wide, but not rubbish.
To be honest, only if you want to be honest, he’s been one of their better players in the Champions League. He isn’t great but fact is he isn’t as bad as what we tell ourselves when pettiness gets the best of us
To be frank, I doubt he’ll regret it the same way I doubt Owen really regrets leaving Liverpool all that much. I mean, why should they? They played/are playing at the elite clubs, getting/got payed elite salaries, on the grand stage (Champions League), much as it hurts to say, Liverpool doesn’t fall into that description does it? Would you have turned that down on the off chance you might be some chaps hero one day?
We really should just move on. To latch on to all these little “victories” (him getting bundled by Flanagan/city fans not having warmed to him yet) is a bit, pointless.
If Guardiola comes in and positions him in the areas of the pitch that he played his best games for Liverpool in there’s no limit to how good he could become (unless he never develops some more composure in front of goal. I’m not sure how much that can be coached at the elite level). But beyond him not being sickeningly talented for us… I just don’t care and find the level of hatred bemusing. It’s not like Torres to Chelsea where it genuinely stung me a bit.
We got good money for Sterling and I’m glad it’s him who went last summer out of what FSG see as their prized asset soccer players. Based on nothing really but Coutinho and Sturridge do seem like sounder lads; you’re quite right on Sterling having something a bit Michael Owenish about him, Ian.
Boo-ing former players is what small clubs do. Leeds, Newcastle and Southampton.
He left us and won silverware, in his first season. He’s going to win a ton of trophies in his career and is getting paid the top of the market rate.
These good things are happening to him, because he made the smart choice and moved.
How small-time we must look to him. Like a bitter former boyfriend, who got dumped when the girl became a popstar. Shouting at the jukebox down the pub, when her new hit single gets played. Boring the barman with tales of how she’ll never be happy, now that they’ve split-up.
Raheem Sterling is behaving with dignity. Our fans aren’t and they are just making a show of themselves.
We are a selling club. He was our most valuable player, so we sold him and for a huge sum. Get over it.
I bet you had a go at Rooney when he went back to Goodison,
That’s total Rubbish about it being only small clubs that boo players,
Figo getting a pigs head fucked at him from Barca fans,
Arsenal ripping into RVP,
List could go on,
Also trying to side with Raheem and stating he acted with dignity is just knowingly winding people up and well you know it,
Cop yourself on,
Regards,
Everyone.
We were chanting greedy bastard when in fact he is a lying bastard!LFC is about players who give 100%,Sterling used us to get a better contract,City obliged.Move on guys we will see a lot of this in the future.LFC is above poxy teenagers,scummy agents we are a historical institution,Sterling is not.
Great read Ian,
What I would say Looking at his perspective coldly as a profession and place of work,the lad, when playing for us he was asked to play a million and one positions (wing back) and never complained and never looked like he was sulking about it . Whilst being our top scorer in a 6th to 8th position team.
He was arguably our best player post Suarez and a injured sturridge yet wages wise he probably wasn’t in the in the top 11 earners.
So he could argue playing right back in a mid table side is hampering his development ?
If then someone offers to triple you salary, offers you a place in a consistent top 4 side , with better players (on paper) and played close to your natural position . As a non Liverpool fan and purely place of work/ job thing can you blame him.
The way he went about it is wrong and done him no favours which you have covered.
Turn that around on someone like flanno where the club means everything to him so they know he doesn’t want to go anywhere and will probably pay him less than he could get elsewhere because of his emotional attachment to the club.
The club are so (or have been) paranoid on wages that we have not attracted players because of it and let players go (agger/Pepe).
If they were proactive and in August 14 rewarded him with a jump then . I don’t think he goes anywhere ? Maybe ?
That said , on sterling as a fan I hope he goes on to do nothing !
Kenny. Yes. Untarnished but unvarnished. Yes. Badly treated, but still true. Yes. Kenny.
Absolutely bang on. Especially the bit about role models. Been saying the same thing to anyone who will listen for donkey’s now…
Excellent read, once again!
Dear old Walt never misses a chance to exonerate Rodgers
I’m sad at the reaction Sterling got. Maybe because I’ve been lucky enough to watch most of our legendary heroes play, to me he was just another player, all be it very good to watch, with finishing issues. We sold him regardless of the story behind it and he now no longer plays for us. There is no reason to judge him or boo him or even talk about him unless our opinion is asked. The only positive about the booing was at least it created an atmosphere and that helped us but it could have come from more songs and cheers. Think about this: a bunch of mainly grown ups spent 45 mins (would have been 90 but for the substitution) booing a young lad. Not nice. Not classy and not liverpool. Let’s get behind our existing players and aim to win every game. That would be worth an article or two.
I don’t think being famous or not has anything to do with whether or not someone can be a good role model.
A famous person can be a bad role model. A “real life” person can be a bad role model.
Has nothing to do with their level of fame.
Other than that, really good piece.
Great piece Ian.
I don’t like commenting/tweeting about Sterling as he’s no longer our player and hence it just looks small-time, but the reason I do comment/tweet is to highlight just how fuckin deluded and hypocritical the English media are about Sterling.
If any foreign player had signed for a top 4 club for £50m and had the season Sterling has had he would have been butchered by the press. Compare with Mangala who the media wrote off as an expensive flop after half a dozen games (perhaps he is one but my point concerns the amount of time they give to a foreign lad unused to the league versus the amount of time they give a young ENGLISH lad who IS used to the league and costs far more)
‘Sterling 1-0 Liverpool’ in trophies this season?! Well, here’s another stat: If you took every last one of Sterling’s league goals (all 5 of them!) away City would have the exact same points! So not only is he not making a difference in the big games, he’s making fuck-all difference in the other games too.
I know transfer fees have gotten (even more) ridiculous, but £50m for Sterling is fantastic business for the club IMO. After 100+ Premier League appearances he is still no nearer to having anything approaching a consistently decent end product. The notion of Guardiola picking him for the City first team next season is absurd (unless as a wing back or some other position that doesn’t require him to be a threat on the opponents goal)
I predict Sterling will be plying his trade at Sunderland, Newcastle, Southampton or similar with 18 months. And will I laugh? Fuck yeah!
And as for Aidy Ward……
We should have paid him what he asked for – or something close. That was our mistake.
He is a young lad and made some mistakes – who hasn’t at that age.
As for me – I don’t boo our former players. I wish most of them well except against Liverpool. I wished Kenny well at Blackburn and Newcastle.
As for Owen – he was a hero – one of the differences between him and Fowler was that the “Englanders” also took him on due to that goal against Argentina.
A great player –
My question would be how comes Owen and Sterling left Liverpool? Would they have stayed?
As for Kenny, the only player that I would say could have been a Kenny was Suarez – and that was mainly for his effort. I remember those cup games against Bognor Regis or Telford – some small teams – where he worked harder than any other player on the pitch.
As for Sterling now – he won his first trophy.
Jenny’s position in our hearts goes beyond his footballing skills, or his managing skills. He cemented his image in the aftermath of Hillsborough, and his support of Suarez in the disgusting ‘negrito’ affair was exactly what I would have hoped a leader and colleague would provide. I usually despise the ‘my country right or wrong’ attitude, but Suarez was being used by the press and The Sun adherents as a rod to beat Liverpool with. Kenny saw beyond Suarez and good for him. He is admirable I every respect.
Not a bad player, either…
My brother in law is a City fan and they call him Raheem Wright-Philips!!! says it all really!