Jump to content
  • Sign up for free and receive a month's subscription

    You are viewing this page as a guest. That means you are either a member who has not logged in, or you have not yet registered with us. Signing up for an account only takes a minute and it means you will no longer see this annoying box! It will also allow you to get involved with our friendly(ish!) community and take part in the discussions on our forums. And because we're feeling generous, if you sign up for a free account we will give you a month's free trial access to our subscriber only content with no obligation to commit. Register an account and then send a private message to @dave u and he'll hook you up with a subscription.

The Official Raheem Sterling Thread (Part 412)


bouncebrigade
 Share

Recommended Posts

We use it to our advantage to drive the price up, a lot of teams in for him can only be a good thing.If a clubs in for him we can say we want a certain amount and teams like Manu are willing to pay it.

With all the money clubs interested, even Ayre can't fuck this up, right?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've not read the whole thread so apologies if I am repeating a perspective already raised by others, but, whatever one thinks of the ill advised player and his agent, the club have played this appallingly and definitely have their share of the blame for the current situation.

 

In the second half of last season, Raheem Sterling,  at a very young age, was one of our top 3 players. Along with a player who was, in my view, the best in the world at that moment, and another who was having the best season of his careers. And yet he was sat on a contract that did not reflect this. Far from it.

 

If the club had been smart, they would have been proactive and offered him a new contract in the summer that reflected the contribution he was now making to the team. We didn't do that. We were happy to let him continue under valued compared with others in the team and players in other teams. 

 

The impression we give is that our strategy is to have First Class players who are on Economy Class salaries. That if we get players when they are young enough, before their talent has developed fully, that we can tie them into deals that are loaded in the club's favor. What this episode shows is that this is strategy doomed to failure. Yes, you can sign young players on low value contracts but, if they do develop into top class players, then you are going to have to recognize that in their contract or else they will go some place else. You can pay low when nobody else is offering high, but Sterling and his agent both know that he can get paid a lot more and likely win more if he goes elsewhere. All the club has to bargain with is goodwill, and we fucked that up by the way we behaved at the end of last season. 

I find Sterling's behavior pretty appalling - the 'pity me'  interview he gave with the BBC was nauseating - but the club are hardly occupying the moral high ground here. The club need to realize that the time period that a club can keep top class talent without regular trophies, CL football and money to pay them, is much much shorter now than it was in the past.

 

It's one thing to pat yourself on the back for picking up a world class talent on the cheap, but to think that you can keep them on the cheap on the promise of 'jam tomorrow', is totally and utterly flawed. The case of Raheem Sterling demonstrates this and one can only hope that lessons are being learnt. The fact that the club's reaction has been to try to publicly embarrass the player into signing a new contract signals that it probably hasn't. That is the most worrying aspect in all of this.

  • Upvote 12
Link to comment
Share on other sites

For me, fuck it, he's off anyway and, if he stays in England, it's only going to be to one of our "top 4 rivals". So, try and hawk him out abroad. If not, and if United's interest is genuine and they make the highest offer, then I'd sell him to them.

Fuck that.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've not read the whole thread ...

A good post in full.

 

I have no problem with Sterling's wage demands and ambition. Watching Sturridge go shopping every week on £150k while you play most weeks, often helping the manager out by playing out of position on £30k, must be pretty galling.

 

With Suarez gone and Gerrard off, it is not surprising that he is less than convinced by Brendan's Project.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is why I should never walk away from my desk for five minutes.

 

I get back and what has happened? Aidy Ward has reportedly called Jamie Carragher a kn*b.

 

Very nice, Aidy.

 

Aidy Ward

 

He also says Sterling won't be signing a new deal for whatever amount they offer him.

 

He said: “I don’t care about the PR of the club and the club situation. I don’t care.

 

“He is definitely not signing. He’s not signing for £700, £800, £900 thousand a week. He is not signing."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

But hitting back today, Ward told the Standard he “didn’t care” about the club or its image, dismissed criticism by former players as “irrelevant” and branded Liverpool legend and Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher “a knob”.

He said: “I don’t care about the PR of the club and the club situation. I don’t care.

“He is definitely not signing. He’s not signing for £700, £800, £900 thousand a week. He is not signing.

Please, please just let him rot in the reserves, fuck the money.

 

I TOLD you young people that Sterling was some bad shit.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

How can any club sit down sensibly with a young talented player when you have a moron like that acting as the go-between?

 

As an aside, there was a very good interview with Nigel Adkins the other day, and he offered a very interesting insight into young players these days...

 

He was explaining that (often) when a young player signs for a big club, the parents give up their jobs within weeks, and brothers and sisters all join in on the bandwaggon. Not that it's wrong per se, but all of a sudden, that player is the earner for an entire family. Before you know it, an agent isn't representing the footballer, but the entire family, and that's where the complications arise.

 

We all know there are hangers on etc, but I'd never really thought of the parents and brothers and sisters being part of that group (unwittingly or otherwise), but they are aren't they (in some cases)?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share


×
×
  • Create New...