Sterling Man City deal could come back to haunt Liverpool

Liverpool fans have welcomed the news that Raheem Sterling has left the club, after Man City agreed to pay £49m for the wantaway winger, making him the most expensive English footballer ever.

Few on Merseyside are sad to see him leave after the acrimony that developed between the club and player after he turned down a new contract at the start of the year. However, Reds manager Brendan Rodgers has denied a rift with the player.

Speaking in Bangkok at the start of a pre-season tour that Sterling reportedly refused to join, Rodgers said: "Raheem and I have always remained very strong in our relationship, and have been up until he left." But he gave reporters short shrift when asked about the deal. "The situation is simple," he said. "The club has agreed with another club a deal for Raheem to be transferred and subject to medical that will go through."

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The saga of Sterling's switch has been highly damaging for the player's reputation, and Chris Bascombe of the Daily Telegraph says he is now "toxic".

"What has been strange about this transaction is how determined Sterling and his representative were to go to war to get him out when dignified diplomacy would have achieved the same result," he says. "He's got what he wanted with the additional, entirely avoidable extra of having his reputation sullied."

On Merseyside, his reputation has been shredded rather than sullied. In an 'open letter' to the player in the Daily Mirror, blogger Jim Boardman wonders whether Sterling ever achieved much for the Reds. "In five years' time will Liverpool fans have much they remember you for in a Red shirt?" he asks. "Nothing you'd like to be remembered for anyway.

"You've yet to have one good full season in the first team... It's more of a gamble for Manchester City than it is for Liverpool. The gamble from our side is whether or not we can spend that windfall wisely."

And while Rodgers has denied falling out with Sterling, the transfer cold end up costing Rodgers his job. Sterling owes Rodgers a lot, writes Andy Dunn for the Mirror. "Make no mistake, Rodgers has been good for Sterling. Rodgers has helped make him a superstar," he said.

However, Rodgers will no longer be able to call on Sterling as he bids to get Liverpool back into the Champions League and another finish outside the top four will not be tolerated.

The Liverpool Echo notes that many fans are delighted that the club's determination to hold out for a £50m transfer fee has paid off, but Andy Kelly argues that "the desperate, unseemly and reputation-destroying tactics of Sterling and his agent Aidy Ward to secure his move to the Etihad should not mask what a loss the player will be".

Selling to Man City could prove to be a great mistake. "Weakening your own team is one thing, strengthening a key opponent's quite another," he argues. Liverpool need to finish in the top four next season and they have sold Sterling to "the team with perhaps the most potential to slip".

Gerrard warns Sterling to 'be a man' as he returns to Liverpool

10 July

Liverpool rebel Raheem Sterling has overcome his mystery illness and finally returned to training after phoning in sick on Wednesday and Thursday and announcing that he did not want to join the Reds on their pre-season tour of Asia and Australia.

The winger, who has demanded a move away from Anfield, has come under fire from Kop legend Steven Gerrard. He contrasted Sterling's attitude to that of new Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson.

In an interview with the BBC, the former Reds skipper, who will make his debut for LA Galaxy this weekend, said: "Raheem and Jordan are at different ends of the scale. Jordan's so professional, he's a winner, a great lad."

He added that he was "very disappointed" over the Sterling affair and hinted that he had strong opinions about the winger's behaviour, adding: "I'd love to be able to say what I want to say on it."

In a separate interview with Sky Sports he went further and told Sterling to act "like a man" over his future."You don't have to throw illnesses in and refuse to go on tour," he said.

"There are millions and millions of Liverpool fans around the world who are itching to see Raheem Sterling in a Liverpool kit. So I don't think it's fair on them if he is behaving like that."

But there is no end in sight to the Sterling saga, says the Daily Telegraph. "Liverpool are ready to take disciplinary action against the 20-year-old if they believe he is breaching the terms of his contract in order to force a move to Manchester City," it reports.

The club will not sell the player for less than £50m, even though his main suitors, Man City, have so far refused to stump up that much money. "Sterling is sure to hold further talks with Rodgers today as Liverpool seek to impress upon the England international he will not leave the club unless City meet their valuation," adds the Telegraph.

Sterling vs Liverpool: agent 'not as clever as he thinks he is'

21 May

Liverpool have cancelled crunch talks with Raheem Sterling's agent Aidy Ward after he declared "all out war" on the club and branded legendary defender Jamie Carragher a "knob" for having his say on the acrimonious transfer saga. In explosive comments made to the London Evening Standard, Ward said he "didn't care" about Liverpool or its reputation and rounded on Carragher, who earlier this week suggested that Sterling should "keep his mouth shut", knuckle down at Liverpool and find a new agent.

Ward told the paper that Sterling would not sign a new Liverpool deal even if they offered him £900,000 a week, and insisted: "Every Premier League club will make a bid for him."

Brushing off criticism of his methods from Carragher, who retired last season after 737 appearances for the Reds over 17 years at Anfield, Ward declared said: "Carragher is a knob. Everybody knows it. Any of the criticism from current pundits or ex-Liverpool players - none of them things matter to me. It is not relevant."

His comments prompted Liverpool to call off planned talks with Sterling and Ward over a new contract.

Ward also comes in for some savage criticism in the pages of the Liverpool Echo, which rounds on the Kent-based agent. His "extraordinary attack on Liverpool Football Club and Kop legend Jamie Carragher is essentially a declaration of all out war", warns the paper.

"It's an outburst which merely reinforces the fact that Sterling's career is being guided by someone with little regard for his best interests," writes James Pearce of the Echo, who brands Ward "unprofessional" and "undignified"

He appears to be trying to force Liverpool's hand by making Sterling's position untenable, says Pearce. But it won't work. "Ward isn't as clever as he thinks he is. Liverpool won't be bullied. Certainly, not by a rookie like him."

However, in the moral maze of modern football Sterling's suitors will have taken note.

"Ward's comments will be of keen interest to both Manchester United, who registered their interest in Sterling on Wednesday. Manchester City and Chelsea are also thought to be keen on the England winger, who recently rejected a five-year, £100,000-a-week offer from Liverpool," says The Guardian.

Sterling bombshell: Man Utd rub salt in Liverpool wounds

21 May

Whether their approach was serious or a deliberate provocation designed to rub salt into Liverpool's wounds, Manchester United have sent shockwaves through the football world by registering an interesting in wantaway winger Raheem Sterling.

It is more than 50 years since a player moved directly from one club to another and although their inquiry was rejected out of hand by Liverpool, the move, details of which have now been leaked to the media, could have major ramifications if it opens the floodgates to other offers from more realistic suitors.

It seems inconceivable that United expected Liverpool to play ball over Sterling given the enmity between the two club, and the Mancunians were "left in no doubt that further communication on the subject would not be welcomed", reports The Times.

"Although relations between the clubs are more cordial now since the departures of Sir Alex Ferguson and Rafael Benitez, the chances of one countenancing the sale of a key player to the other remain negligible," says the paper.

United's approach was "sensational" says The Guardian, which adds that a deal for Sterling "would stun not only both clubs' supporters but the wider football world".

No player has switched allegiances between United and Liverpool since Phil Chisnall moved from Old Trafford to Anfield back in 1964 and the last Liverpool player to sign for Manchester United was Allenby Chilton in 1938.

"It is the last great footballing divide, the most lingering transfer embargo," writes Jim White in the Daily Telegraph, who points out that while players have moved between Liverpool and Everton, Man United and City and even clubs like Real Madrid and Barcelona, the path between Anfield and Old Trafford remains untrampled.

Academy player Scott Wootton may have moved from one to the other in 2007, but he never made the first team. Stars including Peter Beardsley and Paul Ince have played for both sides, but only after a period of quarantine elsewhere, and no senior player has made the move for more than half a century. When defender Gabriel Heinze asked for a transfer from United to Liverpool almost a decade ago he was left in no doubt that it would not end well.

The Argentine could be forgiven for not appreciating the significance of the move. Not so Sterling, and he and his agent might consider a move to Old Trafford a step too far. "Becoming the target of the inevitable vitriol that will pour in their direction is not an easy burden to carry," says White. "And it is a vitriol as likely to arrive from their new supporters suspicious of their past allegiance as from the old."

Certainly crossing the divide did not work for Phil Chisnall after he moved to Anfield from Old Trafford in 1964. "After three years of underachievement he moved to Southend in 1967, before retiring to work in a malt loaf factory in Urmston. It is not the kind of future Sterling is presumably anticipating."