Former Liverpool Captain Steven Gerrard believes Raheem Sterling will leave Liverpool. Gerrard, speaking before his debut with his new club, the LA Galaxy this Saturday, says that he believes Sterling’s days at Anfield are numbered. There have been multiple reports that the want-away forward has missed training due to an undisclosed illness and does not want to go with the club on their pre-season tour to Asia.
Liverpool rejected a £40m bid from Manchester City for Sterling in June, and it still remains to be seen if City will meet the £50 million price that LFC are reportedly holding out for.
Gerrard said he was “disappointed” with the 20-year-old for wanting to move, and as a Liverpool fan, he’s not pleased with how the situation has played out.
Here, in the video embedded below, Gerrard speaks about the Raheem Sterling situation and the news that Jordan Henderson will succeed him as captain of Liverpool. He sees the two players as being on the opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to professionalism.
Gerrard said he didn’t want to comment too much on the situation, as he believes that whatever he says will only make headlines.
“I’m not here to create headlines, but as a Liverpool fan, I’m very disappointed in the situation,” Gerrard said.
“Very, very disappointed. I’d love to be able to say what I want to say on the book, but I know it will create headlines and I don’t want to do people’s jobs for them.”
Liverpool (18 top-flight titles) are second only to Manchester United (20 top-flight titles) as the most decorated club in the history of English football. However, they’re facing a major club crossroads for the second time in two years. Last summer, the club had to sell superstar striker Luis Suarez, given all his “off-the-pitch” issues. They received a massive financial windfall from Barcelona in return for the superstar, but invested that money very questionably.
The new players brought over to Anfield led to a roster that produced a very disappointing season. Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers, entering his fourth season at Anfield, is still trophy-less and will be looking to improve on last year’s 6th-place finish.
Unfortunately for Liverpool, they face a challenging run of away fixtures to start the season, traveling to Stoke City, Arsenal, Manchester United, Everton, Tottenham, Chelsea and Manchester City before Thanksgiving.
Now with Raheem Sterling extremely unsettled, there’s a clash of wills going on at Liverpool, and it probably will have to result in Sterling parting ways with the club. And that could mean a cash infusion of £40 million to £50 million into the club’s budget. Again, Brendan Rodgers and the transfer committee will be put on the spot to invest that money in new players wisely. The results in the standings show that they did not seem to get that right after the sale of Suarez last summer.
This summer, there could be pressure agains to get it right after a potential Sterling sale. This time, the pressure might even be elevated.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous sports talk radio stations all across the country.
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