![\"By](\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Raheem_Sterling_in_2014-2.jpg\")
<\/a>By Biser Todorov (Own work) [CC BY 3.0 (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n
Raheem Sterling<\/h3>\n
It\u2019s been another quiet week in the life of Raheem Sterling, the young lad who hates the limelight and has a calm, sensible representative. Honest. The week began with Sterling reportedly having a meeting with Brendan Rodgers in which he told him that he wanted the club to allow him to move to Man City and he didn\u2019t intend to go on the club tour to Australia and the Far East. Apparently Rodgers said no, so on Wednesday Sterling called in sick.<\/p>\n
No one goes sick for just one day, however, so it shouldn\u2019t be a huge surprise to anyone that he didn\u2019t turn up for training on Thursday either, this time without even bothering to phone up. The whole thing has turned nasty, with Sterling\u2019s agent Aidy Ward citing a difference of opinion with Brendan Rodgers being the chief reason Sterling doesn\u2019t want to stay. That seems unlikely, though, and it\u2019s more logical to think that Ward feels his client will be able to force Liverpool\u2019s hand with his behaviour.<\/p>\n
Chris Bascombe<\/a>\u00a0at The Telegraph is saying different, however. He reckons that Liverpool would rather stick Sterling in the reserves on his current wage of \u00a335,000 a week than let him go to City for less than their valuation of the player. It\u2019s a tricky moment for the club. Cave in to Aidy Ward\u2019s demands and players will know that they can bully the club if they don\u2019t like their situation. Stand strong and they could not only miss out on a fee of around \u00a350 million for the player, but they\u2019ll also have an unhappy youngster sat around on \u00a335,000 a week. Expect City to play hardball on this one and allow it to run until the very end of the transfer window.<\/p>\n When news broke that Liverpool had released Colin Pascoe from their Assistant Manager and First Team Coach positions some thought that it was an attempt from FSG to make Rodgers\u2019s position as manager untenable. The recent appointments of Sean O\u2019Driscoll to Assistant Manager and Pepijn Lijnders to the newly created position of First Team Development Coach, apparently sanctioned by Rodgers, has put paid to that notion. It seems that the backroom reshuffle isn\u2019t quite complete<\/a>\u00a0yet, though, and that Rodgers would also like to bring in an ex-player as the First Team Coach. He\u2019s due to interview some more people, but Gary McAllister \u2013 who played for the Reds during their treble winning season under Gerard Houllier \u2013 is the bookie\u2019s favourite to take the slot. He had a meeting with Rodgers earlier this week and could be brought in as early as next week.<\/p>\n It feels a little bit like we\u2019re writing about Christian Benteke\u2019s move to Liverpool every week, but it\u2019s a rumour that won\u2019t go away. According to The Express<\/a>\u00a0the big Belgian star sat down with Tim Sherwood this week and told him that he wants to move to the Merseyside club. He hasn\u2019t handed a transfer request in yet and Villa are determined to stop him from leaving for less than his \u00a332.5 million buyout clause. Will this one end any time soon? It feels a little bit like it\u2019s entered the closing stages, but it could all rest on the Sterling situation being resolved first.<\/p>\n Should the Benteke deal look like it will never come to fruition for Liverpool they could instead turn to Ligue 1 sharpshooter Alexandre Lacazette. The French forward scored 27 goals in 33 outings last season and is apparently refusing to pen a new deal with his club Lyon. They won\u2019t be overly worried by that, seeing as though he\u2019s contracted to the club until 2018. But the talented 24 year old is ready to hand in a transfer request to force through a move to the Premier League, according to The Independent<\/a>. His value of \u00a328 million is still more than Liverpool are hoping to pay for Benteke, but less than they might have to pay if Villa play hardball.<\/p>\n The Metro<\/a> reckon it\u2019s a different Frenchman that Liverpool will be signing in the coming weeks, with Newcastle\u2019s 18 year old midfielder Olivier Kemen high on Brendan Rodgers\u2019s list of priorities. The Frenchman has failed to impress at St. James\u2019s Park since arriving from Metz two years ago. He was only 16 at the time, mind, but that\u2019s not stopped Rodgers from monitoring his situation. The Liverpool manager is well known for his ability to develop younger players, so if the club can sign him up for a small fee he could be one to watch in the future.<\/p>\n Vlad1988 \/ shutterstock.com<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n One of the slightly more off the wall calls comes from The Express<\/a>\u00a0this week, with the paper reporting that Liverpool have entered the race for the signature of Marco Reus. It had been thought that the Borussia Dortmund front man would be making his way to Barcelona this summer, but reports have emerged from Spain saying that he isn\u2019t keen on being 4th choice behind Suarez, Neymar and Lionel Messi. That means the 26 year old could be heading to the Premier League this summer, with Arsenal, Manchester United and, apparently, Liverpool all keen. Whether that\u2019s just because Liverpool are in the market for a forward and The Express have put 2 and 2 together to make 5 remains to be seen.<\/p>\n Alongside Benteke the name of Aymen Abdennour is another one that keeps getting linked with the Reds. Sticking with The Express<\/a>, the paper reckon that the defender is weighing up offers from both Liverpool and West Ham. It\u2019s an odd couple to be linked with the player, given that his agent also reckons his parent club, Monaco, have had contact from AC Milan, Inter Milan, Barcelona and Juventus. How West Ham make it into that list no one is really all that sure. Still, who are we to argue with the reliability of The Express?<\/p>\n Maxisport \/ shutterstock.com<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Given that the club have only got Jordan Henderson, Lucas, James Milner, Philippe Coutinho, Adam Lallana, Emre Can, Joe Allen, Lazar Markovic and Jordan Ibe to choose from, it makes sense that they feel a little bit light in the midfield department. Perhaps that\u2019s why Eurosport<\/a> are reporting that Liverpool are trying to get Asier Illarramendi from Real Madrid. The Spanish international only made 10 starts in La Liga last season and has since been deemed surplus to requirements by the new Los Blancos manager Rafa Benitez. That means a \u00a316 million move to Anfield could be on the cards for the 25 year old who Brendan Rodgers has apparently been tracking since his days at Real Sociedad. The move could be dependent on the Madrid club signing William Carvalho from Sporting Lisbon, however, with the 23 year old being one of Benitez\u2019s top targets.<\/p>\n The reality is that whether Manchester City come in for Raheem Sterling or he ends up sitting in the reserves next season, it\u2019s difficult to see him making his way back in to the Liverpool first team given everything that\u2019s taken place this summer. It makes sense, therefore, for the club to be looking at alternatives and everywhere you see the name of Barcelona\u2019s Pedro the name Cheryshev is right alongside it. Head to The Liverpool Echo\u2019s<\/a> website, for instance, and you\u2019ll see how they\u2019re covering the story there. It seems that Barcelona\u2019s winger Pedro will be available for around \u00a315 million, a steal given how well he\u2019s performed in La Liga in recent years.<\/p>\n Natursports \/ shutterstock.com<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Cheryshev is something of an unknown quantity, however. The 24 year old is on the books of Real Madrid, but he spent last season on loan at Villareal and that was the Russian\u2019s first full season of top flight football. There\u2019s no question that, given he\u2019s been linked to LFC since he was a fetus, the signing of Pedro would do more to excite the Liverpool faithful than the arrival of an unknown Russian with little experience where it matters.<\/p>\n The website ClubCall claims it has been reporting on football news since 1986, and who are we to disagree? Just because we\u2019ve never heard of them before doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re any less reliable than the likes of The Metro or The Daily Star \u2013 and they\u2019re really reliable. Therefore we don\u2019t think there\u2019ll be any salt needed with the report on ClubCall<\/a>\u00a0today that Liverpool are ready to meet Manchester City\u2019s \u00a316 million asking price for their forward Stevan Jovetic.<\/p>\n He\u2019s a weird one for Liverpool to be chasing. The Montenegrin is 4th choice on City\u2019s books behind Sergio Aguero, Edin Dzeko and Wilfriend Bony owing to his injury problems. The Reds are keen to bring someone in to cover for Daniel Sturridge, but could end up with two ex-Manchester City strikers sitting in the doctor\u2019s surgery if the 25 year old comes in. On top of that, he only ever seems to score when he\u2019s playing against Liverpool, so how would he do if he was up front for the Reds rather than against them? Regardless, Brendan Rodgers sees \u00a316 million as good value for money and is ready to go head to with Inter Milan for the striker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" That Was The Week That Was In the week that (most of) the players returned to training; Sean O\u2019Driscoll & Pepijn Lijnders were confirmed as being part of the new Liverpool backroom team; and a certain Liverpool player dominated the headlines for all of the wrong reasons, the Reds have been linked with a host of new players. Don\u2019t worry, though, you don\u2019t have to trawl through the tabloids to figure out what\u2019s going on \u2013 we\u2019ve done it for you! Stick with us to find out who could yet be in a Liverpool shirt when the first ball is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":141,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions\/141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Gary McAllister<\/h3>\n
Christian Benteke<\/h3>\n
Alexandre Lacazette<\/h3>\n
Olivier Kemen<\/h3>\n
<\/a>Marco Reus<\/h3>\n
Aymen Abdennour<\/h3>\n
<\/a>Asier Illarramendi<\/h3>\n
Pedro & Cheryshev<\/h3>\n
<\/a>Stevan Jovetic<\/h3>\n