adminLiverpool have cancelled today’s planned meeting with forward Raheem Sterling over comments attributed to the player’s agent. Aidy Ward reportedly said the England forward, 20, will not sign a new deal even if offered “£900,000 a week”.
“I don’t care about the PR of the club,” Ward told the Evening Standard.
Sterling was expected to tell the Reds he wants a move away from Anfield this summer and has already rejected a new £100,000-a-week contract.
Liverpool believe there would be no point in having a meeting when the player’s representative is quoted as saying a new deal would not be signed regardless of the figure.
In the newspaper interview, Ward also used a four-letter expletive to describe ex-Red Jamie Carragher, who has criticised Sterling’s actions.
“He is definitely not signing. He’s not signing for £700, £800, £900 thousand a week. He is not signing,” said Ward.
“My job is to make sure I do the best with them [my clients]. If people say I’m bad at my job, or they’e badly advised it does not matter.”
Sterling’s contract runs until 2017 and he told Reds manager Brendan Rodgers before the Premier League draw at Chelsea on 10 May he wants to leave the club.
He was set to formalise his request in a meeting with Rodgers and Liverpool chief executive Ian Ayre on Friday, which will now not happen.
Sterling denied being a “money-grabber” in a BBC Sport interview last month, but has come in for criticism from some of Liverpool’s former players, including Carragher.
Ward added: “Any of the criticism from current pundits or ex-Liverpool players —none of those things matter to me. It is not relevant.”—BBCSport
Online Reporter