A house divided against itself cannot stand – Abraham Lincoln.
Never has the Liverpool fan base been so divided and full of tension, since the Hicks and Gillet days the fan base has been split and this split continues to grow ever more prominent seemingly by the day. The latest and one of the most divisive topics of argument is that of Raheem Sterling.
The adroit young forward has been the subject of much debate over the last half season since it came out that Sterling and his agent, Aidy Ward, had asked for contract discussions to be put on hold until the end of the season. This in itself is a reasonable thing to do, many players often choose to get their heads down and focus on their football leaving the contract talks until the season has finished, Henderson being an example of such a player, however the way the contract situation with Sterling went from Rodgers being confident a deal would be completed shortly to waiting until the end of the season lead to a lot of concern from the fan base that the European Golden Boy wouldn’t be signing a new deal.
Source: liverpoolfc.com
Reports surrounding the contract saga claimed that he had turned down an offer of £100k per week from the club. This lead to Raheem giving an unauthorised interview with the BBC claiming that his motives were not money related.
Recently it has became clearer and clearer that a new deal will not be signed and the player will be sold to the highest bidder which looks likely to be Manchester City with a fee somewhere in the region of £50 million. It would not have been too much of a surprise to see FSG dig their heels in and hang on to the youngster in a fashion similar to that which they held on to Suarez with, however over the last few days it seems that the relationship between Raheem and some of the fans has become irreversibly sour.
It would have been great to see FSG refuse to sell Sterling, especially to a Premier League rival as selling your star talent, one of the most talented u21 players in the world, as a club who’s whole ethos is focused on developing young players, is an extremely damaging action as this is now the club selling their prize asset before their peak which has never, and will never be the plan. Also when it comes to selling your brightest talent, the alternative is usually much more appealing.
Raheem Sterling has been one of our most important players for the best part of two seasons now, many are shocked that we are likely losing him so early on in his career and this has lead to many conspiracy theories being thrown around, such as; he doesn’t want to play under Brendan Rodgers, he doesn’t like living in Liverpool and that he’s a money grabber. In reality, the chances are that he just wants to win trophies, the same with any player, and City give him a better chance of doing so.
Unfortunately, the time has come for Liverpool to accept City’s next bid as long as it matches the clubs valuation of Sterling as although it would be fantastic to hold on to such an enormous talent, the actions of some fans; those posting his phone number and sending him abuse both over the phone and through text messages mean that it is no longer really a viable option to keep the youngster as the levels of personal abuse he has received are completely disproportional and therefore he should not be forced to remain at the club. Many may see this as him getting what he wants but the escalation shown in this situation from some sections of the fan base is absurd and damaging when it comes to future transfers or even holding on to players currently at the club.
Let me ask those of you who posted his number and sent him abuse; when Raheem speaks to the other players at the club, do you think they’re on your side? No. Think of the bigger picture and also remind yourself that you’re abusing a young man just out of his teenage years on a personal level for wanting to leave your club. Yes the way he has gone about it is less than desirable but was anyone concerned about that when Dejan Lovren forced his way out of Southampton to join us in the previous transfer window? I doubt it, in fact there were many fans that seemed endeared by it.
What ever your opinion on the matter, the personal abuse it wrong. It is important to remember that footballers are still people.
Jack
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LAD, GET OUT OF HIS ARSE AND SMELL THE COFFEE, THE LADS A MORON AND IS OLD ENOUGH TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR HIS OWN ACTIONS, I WANT HIM OUT AND HOPE HIS CAREER ROTS LIKE SHAUN-WRIGHT PHILLIPS.