Brendan Rodgers has a mixed transfer record at best at Anfield and needs to use his swollen piggy bank wisely.
|||It is imaginable that among those who represent Raheem Sterling, there was a sense of amusement when Brendan Rodgers was photographed without him yesterday as he tried to explain at a Bangkok hotel why club and player had separated on good terms. Supposedly, the Liverpool manager was snapped all-too often with an arm around Sterling's shoulders during training sessions, a Byzantine attempt, they say, to make it seem like a father was at work, guiding his son on the righteous path through career and life.
But Sterling, who was too tired at one stage last season to play for England, was tired of Liverpool, allegedly tired of Rodgers and tired of being told he was only worthy of becoming the third most valuable player in wage terms at the Premier League's sixth-placed club last season. Meanwhile second-placed Manchester City were prepared to make him the most expensive Englishman in football history.
Those making the decisions at Liverpool, however, consider that Jordon Ibe has as much if not more potential than Sterling. So, having secured, in May, a five-year deal for someone who wants to be there, for a fraction of the wage being offered to someone who does not, the £49m for Sterling is good business.
The process means Sterling's agent, Aidy Ward, instantly becomes a millionaire and it is clear he has not given his client the best advice in how to secure his move painlessly: that BBC interview and the no-shows at training leave a sour taste. Liverpool fans are left to lurch between the consolation of the astronomical figure and the fact, for the second summer running, Liverpool have lost arguably their most exciting talent - and this time strengthened a rival.
Liverpool, it will be said, have become a “selling club”, but this ignores the fact that historically they have not been defined by the players they've sold but by whom they have recruited. Ever since Kenny Dalglish sent chief scout Geoff Twentyman into early retirement upon his appointment as player-manager in 1985, it is an area Liverpool have struggled in and helps explain, in part, why they have not won the league in 25 years.
Rodgers has a mixed transfer record at best at Anfield and needs to use his swollen piggy bank wisely. Liverpool's next move - likely to be for Aston Villa's Christian Benteke - must work - and Ibe must be helped to kick on. Then the Sterling decision will be vindicated. Get it wrong and Rodgers might not be in the position next summer to defend his transfer policy. – The Independent
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