Raheem Sterling

[Rich]

Why wouldn't United be interested in Sterling?!

Our priority should be:
1) Sell overseas - Bayern please
2) Maximise transfer value

So if United offer more than Citeh or Arsenal or Chelsea then flog him to United.

[RedReet]

Sky showing him being heckled by Liverpool fans leaving the training ground today. Don't agree with that tbh.

Did you watch it?

I seen the footage numerous times after the big 'HECKLING' headline and it consisted of a single child or woman (off screen so hard to know) say 'Raheem, you've let us down' (or words to that effect).

It was fair to say, the story didn't live up to the headline.

[Doc_Piptorious]

A good example but as you say, Sterling is not ****. He has it all to prove but if he gets rid of his agent and gets his head down I've no doubt he will have prove it.

Sterling should be looking at Mario and be able to see first hand what can happen to the then most highly rated young player in Europe. A fellow Golden Boy winner like himself. A player who when he was a year younger than Sterling is now already had medels for winning the league and the Champions League.


All Sterling has right now is his Golden Boy award. He has no medels, he is on the back of three to four months of pretty poor form, and he appears to be looking for the sort of money that proven top class players get.

What he should be doing is looking at Balotelli and saying to himself;

"How the hell did that guy end up as he is now, and how do I make sure I don't end up the same way?"

But instead he seems to be acting like he has done it all and is the finished article.

If Sterling chooses to ignore the cautionary tale that he sees at each training session, then I have no problem with the club cashing in should a bid arrive that is silly for such an unproven player.

Sterling has great talent, he had tons of potential, but if he wants to go chasing pound notes at the expense of realising his potential with us, then let him go and have someone ensure that the money we get goes towards bringing in some genuine first team quality into a starting XI that badly needs it.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Did you watch it?

I seen the footage numerous times after the big 'HECKLING' headline and it consisted of a single child or woman (off screen so hard to know) say 'Raheem, you've let us down' (or words to that effect).

It was fair to say, the story didn't live up to the headline.

Yep it was about as bad as the "sustained heckling" the media claimed he received at the launch of the new strip.

[gratziani]

Anyone else getting ****ed off with the line we have only won one trophy in the last nine years line from ****s in the press to give Sterling a free pass for his comments.

FA Cup 2006 , League cup 2012 , then obviously by making it nine years it expunges 2005 champions league.

Plus when you add in losing finals it adds up to a lot of silverware we have been fighting for whilst they try and make it with haven't even been involved in any.

[tanner]

Its all well and good for us to be putting our foot down with Raheem, but we're seemingly all ignoring the root cause of this. We had the same with Suarez, Torres, Alonso and Mascherano, and if it wasn't for Gerrard being a local lad, he would've gone too.

We just can't seem to keep hold of our best players. Fair enough in the fact that most of those moved to Barca or Real, but lesser clubs are starting to try their luck now, like Chelsea,City, Utd and even Arsenal.

There's a combination of factors contributing to this, location, the wages we're prepared to pay, the recruitment policy (seemingly focusing on youth and potential resale value) and our lack of success (which is the result of the factors just highlighted). Its an endless cycle which is going to need something to change drastically before things improve.

FSG are NOT the people to make these changes, so we may as well just suck it in and carry on as we are. There's really no point moaning about it, this is what we are until they decide to sell up. The most we can hope for is for us to simply play hard ball and keep any decent players here for another few months or a season against their will. There will be a cycle of managers under their tenure, because thats how they'll keep the natives happy. Just as each cycle completes, they'll bring in a new manager, and there will once again be hope. The cycle will continue. Oh well.

I'd even go as far as saying that the problem here is not young Sterling, its Liverpool FC.

[vlahka]

Alonso and Mascherano had issues with benitez which was the main reason they left. And if we're honest Torres and Suarez were never going to stay for long either. Sterling has always seemed like the type to want everything straight away. I'm sure many of us called in his personality a season or so ago about being a bit of a trouble maker and no doubt future merc. I know I did. Which is why him wanting to leave is of zero surprise and brings happiness to me since we'll get a nice return from him. He'll go off and take his personal problems with him, warm some benches, probably get fined for staying out partying too much as well. 2 years from now we'll be thrilled to have gotten rid of him.

[The_weatherman]

Alonso and Mascherano had issues with benitez which was the main reason they left. And if we're honest Torres and Suarez were never going to stay for long either. Sterling has always seemed like the type to want everything straight away. I'm sure many of us called in his personality a season or so ago about being a bit of a trouble maker and no doubt future merc. I know I did. Which is why him wanting to leave is of zero surprise and brings happiness to me since we'll get a nice return from him. He'll go off and take his personal problems with him, warm some benches, probably get fined for staying out partying too much as well. 2 years from now we'll be thrilled to have gotten rid of him.

Rafa and Xabi had a falling out over the birth of Xabi's baby and when Rafa tried to sell him the summer after, IIRC, but I don't remember any beef between Rafa and Mascher. They were on good terms, Hodgson and Purslow were in charge when Mascher went.

It's difficult for us to keep players from joining Madrid and Barca tbh. I don't think any club can stand against them and keep their player if he wants to go.

Sterling should be sold this summer, I don't want him in our team, can't stand that sort of person he comes a across to be.

[tanner]

Alonso was moaning about the tax he was paying several months before the move. IMO it all came down to money, he might not admit it, but for me that was it. He gave an interview to one of the Sunday broadsheets, breaking it down to how much money he was down on a few years previously.

I too can't remember the Masch issue.

Whilst we can't defend against the likes of Real and Barca, lets not focus on that specifically. My point was a wider issue than that, the recruitment policy, the wages, the lack of success because of those two things, and the cycle of managers keeping us in hope during FSG's tenure. FSG are not in a position to make the drastic changes required to make us an attractive proposition for the types of players we need to make us successful.

[The_weatherman]

Alonso was moaning about the tax he was paying several months before the move. IMO it all came down to money, he might not admit it, but for me that was it. He gave an interview to one of the Sunday broadsheets, breaking it down to how much money he was down on a few years previously.

I too can't remember the Masch issue.

Whilst we can't defend against the likes of Real and Barca, lets not focus on that specifically. My point was a wider issue than that, the recruitment policy, the wages, the lack of success because of those two things, and the cycle of managers keeping us in hope during FSG's tenure and of course FSG not being in a position to make the drastic changes required to make us an attractive proposition for the types of players we need to make us successful.

Ah, yes the tax thing, I think Xabi has even spoke of it after the transfer.

I agree with your last point though, IMO we can do a lot more than we have been doing in recruitment and wage structure.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Its all well and good for us to be putting our foot down with Raheem, but we're seemingly all ignoring the root cause of this. We had the same with Suarez, Torres, Alonso and Mascherano, and if it wasn't for Gerrard being a local lad, he would've gone too.

We just can't seem to keep hold of our best players. Fair enough in the fact that most of those moved to Barca or Real, but lesser clubs are starting to try their luck now, like Chelsea,City, Utd and even Arsenal.

There's a combination of factors contributing to this, location, the wages we're prepared to pay, the recruitment policy (seemingly focusing on youth and potential resale value) and our lack of success (which is the result of the factors just highlighted). Its an endless cycle which is going to need something to change drastically before things improve.

FSG are NOT the people to make these changes, so we may as well just suck it in and carry on as we are. There's really no point moaning about it, this is what we are until they decide to sell up. The most we can hope for is for us to simply play hard ball and keep any decent players here for another few months or a season against their will. Oh well.

I'd even go as far as saying that the problem here is not young Sterling, its Liverpool FC.

All the clubs you called lesser clubs are richer than Liverpool and all have won more than Liverpool over the past 20 years. Very easy to see how they would be a draw to players.


As for losing a Spanish or South American player to Barca or Real, well that is something nearly all the big clubs in England are familiar with.


I don't see FSG as the problem though because like them or not they have helped the club to make great strides forward from the position it was in when they took over.

I think that the problem lies more in our recruitment strategy rather than the amount of money we spend on players. We spend enough on wages and on transfer fees to have better players than what we currently have. Granted we cannot match the richer clubs when it comes to wages, but what we do pay is not exactly chump change either, and we do have owners that make sure that any money garnered from big sales goes back towards recruiting new players.

Look at our two biggest outgoings under FSG in terms of money we received.

Torres £50m
Suarez - £75m


How much of that did our owners do a Mike Ashley with?

Nowt it all went back to bringing in new players along with our transfer kittys

But look at the bigger transfers (by bigger I mean the size of the fee outright or the size of the fee against the age or experience of the player bought) we brought in

Carroll -£35m
Suarez - £22m
Downing - £20m
Henderson - £16m
Allen -£15m
Sturridge - £12m
Sakho - £15m
Lallana - £25m
Lovern - £20m
Markovic - £20m
Moreno -£12m
Can - £10m
Balotelli -£16m






And that is not even including buys that hardly played like

Coates £7m
Borini £10m
Aspas - £7m
Alberto - £7m
Ilori - £7m
Origi -£10m



And I have not even included guys like Lambert or Coutinho (who is an example of taking a punt on a young player and actually playing him to find out if the punt was worth it)



The problem for me is not FSG, but rather the quality of player that we are spending pretty decent amounts of money for, and the non use of players we are spending a decent collective amount for.

[Yozza]

Alonso was moaning about the tax he was paying several months before the move. IMO it all came down to money, he might not admit it, but for me that was it. He gave an interview to one of the Sunday broadsheets, breaking it down to how much money he was down on a few years previously.

I too can't remember the Masch issue.

Whilst we can't defend against the likes of Real and Barca, lets not focus on that specifically. My point was a wider issue than that, the recruitment policy, the wages, the lack of success because of those two things, and the cycle of managers keeping us in hope during FSG's tenure. FSG are not in a position to make the drastic changes required to make us an attractive proposition for the types of players we need to make us successful.

I was a huge fan of Alonso & was gutted when he left but it amazes me how most fans put all the blame on Rafa

He wanted to leave & was making noises about it for ages....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/liverpool/5578084/Xabi-Alonso-warns-that-tax-will-drive-top-players-away.html

Xabi Alonso warns that tax will drive top players away

Even footballers have turned on the government. Xabi Alonso believes Gordon Brown's economic policies have weakened English football and that the Premier League's star players could be forced to the Continent to escape the weak pound and the incoming 50p tax rate.

Alonso is refusing to commit himself to Liverpool next season, with Real Madrid eager to to take him to the Bernabeu, and with Alonso estimating he is losing a third of his earnings he is edging closer to a return to Spain.

"Of course we footballers think about it; we are not stupid, we keep an eye on it," Alonso said. "When you see your contract down by 30 per cent you cannot be happy. I cannot do anything – it must be Gordon Brown or David Cameron.
" I think the weakness of the sterling is not helping the Premiership because for those competing and fighting against the European teams it is a big weak point. Hopefully over the next few months and years it will get back to what it was not so long ago."

[Bender]

Sterling's agent: “I don’t care about the PR of the club & the club situation..he is not signing" link

******/S

[Paddy]

Aidy Ward is a ****ing cunt aint he?

[Bender]

Aidy Ward is a ****ing cunt aint he?

Really is a disgusting transfer