Sterling’s costly big money move

THE 20-year-old has been embroiled in an increasingly bitter public war with Liverpool over his desire to leave Anfield this summer and is on the verge of ruining his reputation.
Melwood’s car park was busy on Wednesday morning. As if a crime had taken place, a white tarpaulin – impressive in its length – screened the complex’s inner entrance, which, rather mundanely, is in the process of a facelift.

The long-serving attendant, Kenny, was there as usual wearing his high-visibility jacket, springing out of his cabin to speak to incomers he did not recognise. For those he did, as usual, there was a warmly delivered hand signal, reflecting his ease.

One person, who was expected to show, did not. Between 9am and 10am, when the rest of the squad were getting changed while listening to loud music or, instead, enjoying breakfast in the quieter surroundings of the canteen upstairs, Melwood received a phone call. It was Raheem Sterling, informing his bosses that he would not be appearing, for he had been taken down by a sudden illness in the night.

This is a story with a significant subplot. Sterling had sat down with Brendan Rodgers in two separate meetings over the two previous days. It is alleged that in the second one, he told the manager that he does not wish to play for Liverpool anymore and, indeed, that he did not wish to partake in the imminent pre-season tour of south east Asia and Australia, which begins today with a long flight to Bangkok.

In the discussions, Sterling did not submit a transfer request. That move would decrease the earnings of both he and his agent Aidy Ward while speeding up the process of a move to Manchester City, who will go close to Liverpool’s asking price of £50 million but maybe not quite pay the full amount. From all parties, here is a game of brinksmanship and when the saga is finally over, each one wants to feel unbowed to the other.

Eventually, Liverpool will be shorn of an exciting young player but will have received arguably the highest fee in the history of football for potential. It depends on your definition of potential. Manchester City will have what they want, too: an improvement on Jesus Navas, an England international that will enhance their quota of home-grown players.
And what will Sterling have? Materialistically, everything he wants, certainly. He will still have the world at his feet. He will probably win titles in the seasons that follow.

Sterling, though, has incensed match-going Liverpool supporters and for those who follow the fortunes of the club on social media, the fume-o-meter has reached unprecedented levels.

Sterling is not too young to be loved by the Kop. Robbie Fowler was his age when 31 goals in a season earned him the status of God, a name he is still referred to 20 years later. There are some mitigating circumstances but Sterling has not done enough yet to even earn him his own song, something that seemed to frustrate him in an interview published by Sunday Times magazine in April. When he returns to Anfield next season, it is imaginable that scorn will cascade from the terraces in the direction of an ex-player like it never has before.

It might be the same at other grounds. He has alienated himself from neutrals, too – who now view him as a money-grabbing brat, just like Ashley Cole. The defender’s reputation – despite being arguably England’s most consistently reliable performer until his international retirement, was sullied first by the manner with which he left Arsenal for Chelsea.

Those, who know Cole personally, say it has not defined him as a human being. Yet, a perception exists that will never go away. For Sterling, it could be the same: a footballer whose actions off the field have out-weighed his performances on it in the eyes of a public, which never forgets. Sterling is 20 years old. He probably doesn’t understand this now. But he might soon.

It has been put forward that Ward, the agent, has been acting on his client’s wishes. Much has been written about Ward. Far too much. There is a theme with his clients: young lads who have arrived as footballers despite the absence of a father figure in their lives. Most fathers would preach caution over ambition, that the grass is not always greener. Publically, at least, Ward now appears as a Fagin character from Oliver Twist, with Sterling as Jack Wild, the not so Artful Dodger, in the mood to slip bank notes from the pockets of others at any opportunity.

Despite the unsettling, distracting and prolonged nature of the episode, Liverpool are holding firm. For the time being, Rodgers wants Sterling with the squad and if he has his way, could play him against a Thai All-Star XI on Tuesday.

Before his presence can be determined, Liverpool’s doctors, as a matter of routine, will visit Sterling at his home in Southport where he now lives alone without his mother, who returned to London several months ago before the chaos started.

There are examples of compromises being reached between club, player and agent when this has happened before. Where money is concerned, nothing is sacred.
Yet if Sterling’s ailment does clear, the next time he turns up at Melwood Kenny might not be the only one waiting to greet him at the gates. And, collectively, the hand signals will probably reflect something else. – Goalcom.