£2m RAKE-OFF
Agent Ward gets huge cut from Sterling’s deal
RAHEEM sterling’s controversial agent Aidy Ward is set to pocket around £2million from his player’s british record £49m move to Manchester City.
Ward has made himself a hate figure in liverpool for the way he is perceived to have agitated sterling into leaving, although the player has publicly thanked his adviser.
Ward’s cut from the transfer breaks down to five per cent of sterling’s £180,000-a-week wages over the five years of his contract, which is about £2.43m. out of that, Ward must pay an agreed percentage to rob segal’s sports impact Management, the organisation he left last year to set up on his own, taking sterling and West brom’s saido berahino with him.
That leaves the agent with a tidy £2m due from sterling that will be paid over the length of the player’s contract at City.
sterling still has a management contract in place with segal until November — as has berahino. The West brom forward has recently split from Ward, who said: ‘You’ll have to ask saido the reasons.’
liverpool have just over three weeks to spend some of sterling’s fee on reinforcements for manager brendan rodgers before the start of the new Premier league season.
rodgers and his players left Thailand for Australia yesterday to continue their pre-season tour but midfielder Joe Allen insists it is wrong to make the manager the scapegoat for the club’s wretched 2014-15 season.
rodgers came under intense pressure at the end of a campaign that unravelled spectacularly, culminating in the 6-1 final- day humiliation at stoke. The manager survived a performance review with club owners Fenway sports group but Allen, in talks over a new contract, admits that other coaches have been sacked for less.
‘The players here are all honest and take responsibility,’ said Allen. ‘When you end on such a low, it’s a really long summer.
‘We were the ones who let down the supporters, the manager, the staff down and ourselves. it’s simple. it’s up to us to get back to the levels we know we can reach.
‘ it takes a while to get over disappointments like that but our mentality now is to look forward.
‘We don’t need extra motivation. We want to make sure we hit the ground running.’
liverpool — who are still in talks with Aston Villa over striker Christian benteke, but remain firm that they will not pay £32.5m for the belgium striker — will continue to blood new signings during games in brisbane tonight and in Adelaide on Monday. Nathaniel Clyne, the £12.5m arrival from southampton who played the first 45 minutes in the 4-0 win over Thai All-stars on Tuesday, is hoping the switch to Anfield will provide him with the chance to cement his position as england’s first choice right back.
he finished the last campaign under a small cloud.
england manager roy hodgson kept Clyne on the bench until the last minute of June’s euro 2016 qualifier in slovenia and the player scuttled off down the tunnel at the end instead of celebrating with team-mates and the travelling england fans. Afterwards, hodgson was spiky in his appraisal of the 24-year-old.
Clyne, however, maintains he did not show hodgson a lack of respect at the end of that 3-2 win, saying: ‘i was disappointed not to play but it’s just made me hungrier to get in the team.’
‘i feel i’m good enough and that i should be playing. i hope when the next game comes around i will get the call-up and get some game time. i thought i just went in with the rest of the team. hopefully, next time i will play.’