<\/a>Football.ua [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0), CC BY-SA 3.0 (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0) or GFDL (http:\/\/www.gnu.org\/copyleft\/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>Rumours that Liverpool are hoping to bring in Danny Ings, James Milner and even Arturo Vidal are doing the rounds, and all of them will push harder for a higher wage in their dealings with the club if they know that Liverpool are willing to be bullied when their backs are against the wall.<\/p>\n
Yet FSG have also decided to implement a policy of bringing in the best young players in the country, so what is the point of doing that if they\u2019re then not willing to pay them top dollar when they come good?<\/p>\n
Raheem Sterling is an incredible prospect. He is viewed as being one of the best young players in Europe and, if Liverpool do let him leave, he\u2019ll be chased by all of the top clubs around.<\/p>\n
But John Barnes is right: he hasn\u2019t achieved anything yet. It is perhaps that more than anything else that has angered the Liverpool supporters. For a 20-year-old who hasn\u2019t achieved anything, who hasn\u2019t even scored goals in the double figures this season, to be suggesting that he is too good for the club will rankle fans who are famed for keeping their heroes\u2019 feet firmly on the ground.<\/p>\n
Jamie Carragher, on Sky\u2019s Monday Night Football, summed it up perfectly. He said, \u201cIf it\u2019s about trophies, Liverpool had a chance for a trophy this year, in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley against Aston Villa. Where was Sterling? If you want trophies, they don\u2019t get given to you, you have to earn them, you have to play well in big games\u201d.<\/p>\n
Sterling has under-performed since the talks about his contract demands made it into the press. He has had a poor end to the season. How can he then sit there and demand big money, or say that he wants to move to a bigger club?<\/p>\n
The club isn\u2019t faultless, of course. They should have signed Sterling on to a new contract at the end of last season, when he\u2019d been an important part of Liverpool\u2019s title challenge and when success seemed to be on the horizon.<\/p>\n
Most people associated with football think that Liverpool Football Club is the best place for him to be for his footballing development. If he were to get a transfer to Manchester City \u2013 the club that is reportedly the favourites to sign him \u2013 would he be a regular starter? Would the pressure to succeed and perform be any less than it is now?<\/p>\n
Brendan Rodgers has done his best to look after Sterling. He sent him away to Jamaica for a break in December and did something similar last season. He has protected him from getting burnt out as much as possible. Would he get the same protection if Arsenal, for example, paid \u00a335m for him?<\/p>\n
Liverpool\u2019s transfer policy has had its ups and downs in recent years, but this feels like a watershed moment for the current regime. If they let Sterling go they\u2019ll be losing a top prospect and showing that players can force their hand, as well as admitting that the club doesn\u2019t think it will be able to compete for top honours in the near future; yet if they keep him and persuade him to sign a new contract for more money then they\u2019ll have caved to the demands of a young player who knew he was in a position of strength.<\/p>\n
Whatever happens in the coming weeks, it is starting to feel like it is the biggest summer in the transfer market for Liverpool for years. Get it right and the club could be propelled back into the Champion\u2019s League and start fighting for major honours again. Get it wrong and Liverpool FC could just be yet another club lost in the Premier League wilderness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sterling Wants To Go According to Ben Smith at the BBC, Raheem Sterling told the Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers that he wants to leave the club in the summer before their game against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. The 20-year-old has reportedly rejected a \u00a3100,000-a-week offer from the Reds and has been in the middle of a PR war between his agent and the club for the last month or so. Liverpool fans seem unimpressed with Sterling\u2019s agent and have let their disappointment seep down from the stands in recent weeks, with chants such as \u201cRaheem Sterling, your agent\u2019s a knob\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46"}],"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=46"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions\/49"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}