Sterling - 'Money is not everything in my life'

If someone offers £40mill plus for him in the summer flog him. Possibly the best thing for the club is to sell him now cos if we accede and give him 120K per week plus it completely undermines our wage and financial structure. What are other player at the club going to thing, the Sturridge's, Ibes, Cans, Sakhos, Coutinhos, Hendersons?? They'll see we've caved in and given him a 100k pay rise and be asking 'Where's mine??' Alright some of those players I mention might be more committed and loyal, but you can see the point.

He's obviously got his people in his ear, agents, advisors, whoever. He comes across as quite pathetic actually, weak minded and easily manipulated into saying other peoples' words like a puppet. I don't doubt for one second that all he said in that interview yesterday was planned in advance. If they ask you this say this, if they bring this up try and keep it to x,y,z etc. I've not completely turned on him yet but am close to it. I'm glad the club and Rodgers have come out hard on the situation though since he did this interview totally independently, again probably organised by his people. He needs a slapping down, he had a ****e season in 2012/13, he was good in 2013/14 but this was down to Suarez more than anything, and he's been very inconsistent and now distracted in 2014/15. He's lucky we've been so patient with him. Does he think if he goes to Chelsea, City, Real, Bayern that he can have three bad games in a row and they'll put an arm round him and go 'It's alright Raheem you can show us how good you are next time'?? No ****ing way. He needs to seriously get real.

 

The more I read stuff like this, the more I think it's not about the money. The way Rodgers conducts himself with interviews like this will hardly resolve things with Sterling. He's a 20 yr old kid ffs, Rodgers really does lack man management skills.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/3216615

 

Yep, make less sense to sell a valuable asset that refuses to sign a new deal rather than let him run his deal down so we lose him for nothing

He has been poor this season, that much is fact and something you've already said yourself. However, if it weren't for the contract situation, not one Liverpool fan would be saying we should sell him. So yes, it is a bit of a petty "**** him then" response.

 

Can't blame the fans for saying that though. Player's brought it on himself.

 

Agreed but his comments this week make the mercenary type criticisms a bit pathetic. The lads just a bit silly to think he should be moving on to bigger and better things (in his mind) so soon

 

Here's a novel idea mate...convince him to stay

Give him what he wants because as you've said, noone is saying he won't be quality and that's what you're investing in.

 

I think he's got people telling him he's bigger and better than he is as well as obviously having a huge ****ing ego on him to buy into the hype they're giving him. Put the two together and you can see why we're where we are today. Not saying he's the mercenary sort but you know that people will be telling him things that are making his eyes roll around in his head ding ding ding with pound signs. He's just young, naive, easily influenced and like I say weak minded I think.

 

For me he has some class but I gave my doubts cos frankly any top too guy ive seen you know even at 20

He just fluffs his lines too much for me

So for me it's not 30 or 40. No this is English oremium time and 50 mil at minimum

I feel that Rodger has licked his hole long enough and the player hinself has left camp for England then wanderers off deliberately to bbc to gave a whine and say stuff that can be clearly construed as him weighing up options

Rodger is right to pull him in over it


If this was van gaal the lad would be out in the cold forever. He'd go find sterlings child ask ask her how can she live with such a rotten dad

......

In the end it's all about replacement not about him in 1977 lfC replaced Keegan. Last year we did not replace suarez

Does anyone think serious we cannot replace sterling with Ibe? I think we can

 

For me Ibe has more going for him than Sterling comparatively at this point in his career. He has the same pace, movement, running but also has a great shot and finish on him. Only thing going against Ibe is that he's younger and hasn't had the first team opportunities yet. When he gets those I think he'll end up better than Sterling.

 

...and turning down £100k a week no doubt

 

The older ones amongst us remember MacManaman saying how he was delaying talks on a new contract as he wanted to concentrate on his football and he intended staying because he loved the club. Then he went to Real Madrid on a free and filled his boots. If Sterling won't sign in the summer sell him and use the money on new players. He is a good player, but inconsistent and his final ball is rubbish more often than not.

If he went to Barca or Real Madrid he would be a bench warmer. If he went to City or Chelsea he may get the odd game. He is believing the likes of the Daily Fail and his own agent and thinks he is world class already

 

\ He may be worth that some day in the future but that is crazy talk.

 

Have you read anything he said?

He's said it's not about money. If true, how do Liverpool "convince him to stay"?

If money does talk and we give him £150k+, what happens when he does come good? What about other players such as Studge or Hendo as captain? Man Utd might like to get raped in negotiations but most other clubs don't!

 

fool...

we paid you 25mil for lallana.. potter off now.

 

You'v got it.

 

I don't think people are writing him off, just agreeing that he's not worth anymore than 100k a week and of the way he performed this season is the level of performances he's going to produce over the next 4/5 years then selling him now for 40-50m and replacing with a quality cf and cm woukdsnt be too bad.

 

Have you?

Because all I'm reading is a lot of 2+2=5 from the fans on here. I think a lot of you are buying the media hyperbole against him and making up stuff to get yourselves all upset. This is what he's actually said...

"It's never been about money. I talk about winning trophies throughout my career."

"That's all I talk about. I just want to take the time to think about what I've achieved in my career so far, where I need to go and what I need to do to get better as a player."

The last bit is important because maybe he is genuinely wondering what's best for his development. Now IF that is the case then a better manager than Rodgers could convince him to stay or at the very least show some managerial quality by not trying to fight it out in the media against a 20 year old kid. But hey, all the liverpool fans are pleased bcos he's giving Sterling both barrels in the press.

And lets consider it is about the money (which I'm beginning to think isn't the case). You talk about Hendo, Ibe, Sturridge. You ask what happens when they ask for a payrise? Well let me turn that on its head. What happens IF you let talent like Sterling go? You think Ibe or Hendo won't do the same a year or two from now?? Why wouldn't they? And if they're as good as Sterling why not give them the wages. You're in a catch 22 - you lose your best players bcos they want CL footy, you end up struggling to make top 4 again. Your next crop of talent rise to the top, and they think and do exactly the same. You can knock United but Chelsea, City and even Arsenal are able/willing to pay Sterling those wages. That is the reality of top 4. That's literally the kind of money you have to pay to keep the players needed to keep you in the top 4. You need to look at this objectively instead of having a short term view on it.

 

Somewhere along the line you have to bite the bullet and accept you need to keep hold of these players. Whether it's money OR his own desire to develop as a player or play CL, I think you have to stop vilifying the kid and talk him round.

Also, he talks about signing a contract 12 months ago if it was provided. What was the difference back then. You were 2nd in the league and looking at CL footy. It supports what he says about not being about the money.

 

I don't believe it is about the money (unless we only offered say 60k for example) and I believe he does want to be winning things, however at this sage on his career he can make 2 choices. One is stay with the club that's brought him through made him a first team player and over the last 2 years has challenged for the league and this year possibly fa cup...

or, do what a few other english players have done and gone to a team where ty think they will be a regular and instead bench warm, maybe win the odd medal being a bit part player before being sold to a mid table team 3 years later.

SWP, Adam Johnson, Jack Rodwell, could even say Sturridge.

 

You started off so well yet ended up talking about wages regardless

No one as mentioned Ibe wanting a payrise so you've just decided to throw that one in there. Hendo is good for us but reality knows he's reached his limit, can you see him going any higher than Liverpool? Sturridge is reportedly already on £150k, if he see's Sterling (a young player that's achieved much less than him) jump his level he'll want more too. Ignoring all that, Liverpool have already made a substantial offer to Raheem, something he has said he didn't expect and would have accepted left had it been about money.

The reality of what Sterling is saying is that its nothing to do with wages. So to refer back to one of your earlier posts, what should Liverpool do to convince him to stay IF its not about money?

Basically, you're trying to pick holes in something that doesn't exist. Liverpool fans know he is a good young player with lots of potential to become great, but they also know that he's not yet at a level that deserves to see him reach £170k per week, something Suarez didn't even get until the final months at Liverpool! We also know from experience that no player is irreplaceable so if he refuses to sign a new contract, we'd prefer to see us maximise the value of the asset now rather than lose him for nothing or next to nothing later on. Its really not rocket science.