Liverpool chairman Tom Werner has revealed why the club decided to sell Raheem Sterling to Manchester City for £49million this summer.
“The first thing I’d want to say about that is that we’ll only ever sell a player if we believe it’s in the best interests of the club. We have demonstrated that previously,” Werner told the ECHO.
“It was clear to us that Raheem didn’t want to stay at Liverpool.
“It was our collective decision that when the price we set was met by Manchester City that it was in the best interests of the club to sell.
“Regardless of how it played out, Raheem made an important contribution to the club during his time at Liverpool and I believe that he’s an outstanding player.
“I look forward to seeing him when he comes back to Anfield to play against us.”
It was inevitable that Liverpool had to see Sterling given all the drama that was happening with him and the club. As talented a player as Sterling is, he may have made the wrong decision to leave Liverpool at this stage of his career. He was becoming an important player as the club and it will be interesting to see how much game time he gets at Manchester City.
At the end of the day as Tom Werner said, there is no point keeping a player who does not want to play for the club and if someone meets his valuation then it is best to sell. What is worrying though for Liverpool is that this trend could continue in future with our star players. We saw Fernando Torres and Luis Suarez pull off the same stunt of wanting to leave. Hopefully a player like Coutinho is not next and Liverpool can start to win trophies and titles thus there is no reason for players wanting to leave.
Liverpool players need an outstanding manager who can bring out the best in them. BR is simply not this person. Top players elsewhere become ordinary at Liverpool and they become stats when they leave- Shevy, Downing, Borini(when on loan at Sunderland); Balotelli, Lallana, Lovren, …Liverpool needs a manager in the caliber of Marinho, Wenger, LVG, Ron Koeman to take them to the next level of their career. Sterling made a superb decision for his career and made lots of money for LFC
Mike : you never spoke a truer word my friend with Jurgen Klopp managing this squad we would again be in C/L next season . With `clueless` Rodgers it will not happen .Once again a piece of individual brilliance saved the day .
I think icomments like yours demonstrate the fickle nature of the “fans” of today. Rodgers almost took liverpool to a league title had a bad season where we finished 6th and is “clueless”, AND without any hint of irony want him to be replaced by a manager who has just almost took his team to a league title , had a bad season and finshed 7th , but somehow is the next messiah
With this modern take on management and having a so call big name manager, Shankly would’ve never stood a chance if he was managing Liverpool in present day. Sterling left because his mother didn’t think the Liverpool cash was enough, it had nothing to do with ambition etc. It was pounds pure and simple.
Well said. On a different note, Rodgers should beware of selection issues from the present squad. I do not understand why Emre Can who was fantastic towards the end of last season should not be given the chance to consolidate on his performances. Please let Adam Lallana be staying on the bench while Emre Can starts.
ln Rodgers we have a man to get us the result we needed we will never walk alone without trophies this season