RODGERS’ JOB MAY GO UP IN SMOKE AS WELL
Sterling’s demands are just one issue for Liverpool boss to overcome
AS IF Brendan Rodgers didn’t have enough on his plate trying to win his first trophy for Liverpool. He is also having to deal with the whole Raheem Sterling issue – his future, his contract and his off-field behaviour. And it must be absolutely frightening for the Liverpool manager.
Rodgers could be looking at an exit from Anfield this summer if he can’t win that elusive trophy. Liverpool haven’t won a thing since Kenny Dalglish’s team picked up the League Cup three years ago and, for all the money spent, that is too long.
It is FA Cup semi-final weekend, a competition they are expected to win to give Steven Gerrard the send-off of which every Liverpool fan is dreaming.
First they have a difficult challenge against a resurgent Aston Villa at Wembley but Liverpool and Rodgers’ week has been preoccupied by the adverse publicity surrounding Sterling and his unusual and unfortunate social habits.
You could argue that he is just the same as any other 19 or 20-year-old who does daft things with his mates. But, if I was Sterling, I’d be asking myself if I needed mates like the one(s) which decided to make a few quid by selling pictures to a newspaper.
The big difference, of course, is that he’s a professional athlete, an England international and one of the top prospects in the Premier League, and therefore European football. He shouldn’t be smoking or inhaling laughing gas. Hopefully, he was just experimenting and it’s not a regular habit and he’s learned from the backlash.
The prevalence of social media has changed footballers’ lives, and I am well aware of that.
When you look back at Alex Ferguson’s relationships with his players, he relied on spies and word of mouth to keep an eye on the youngsters’ social lives – and older ones, too.
Now he wouldn’t have to bother. Today, if a player steps out for a bite to eat or parks his car on a double yellow line, it can be on the internet in seconds. And the days of going to the pub for a quiet pint are long gone. You have to live like a hermit if you want to get to, and stay at, the top. And most players accept that comes with the territory.
Sterling has two years left at Anfield and is negotiating a new deal with Liverpool. He has reportedly been offered – and turned down – £100,000-a-week.
It’s understood he’s on about £30,000-a-week at the moment, which is still a significant amount of money for a young lad. Rodgers must be wondering what will happen to Sterling when he gets his big pay day – and it will be a huge one.
How can the manager and Liverpool protect him? How can it be justified offering that amount of money to someone who is, clearly, just a kid at heart? He certainly doesn’t seem to be getting great advice, such as when he did a TV interview a couple of weeks ago in which he revealed he wasn’t signing the deal offered by Liverpool. I just hope it is not a car crash waiting to happen.
With Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal all sniffing round, and Liverpool struggling to qualify for next season’s Champions League, you can understand why the club are nervous about losing Sterling.
But we are talking about a player with potential, who has that inconsistency of youth. Take the game against a poor Newcastle side on Monday: he scored a good goal, but missed two sitters.
He isn’t in the bracket of a Barcelona or Real Madrid – can you imagine how he would handle the stick that has been handed out to Gareth Bale this season? And he might be well advised to stay at Liverpool to develop that potential.
Rodgers could do without the distraction, especially this week. He has enough on his plate with team selection and with Gerrard back from suspension, fit and no doubt desperate to start against Villa.
The FA Cup has become a massive competition for the Liverpool manager. He has to win it. If he doesn’t, it has been another unsuccessful season and Rodgers surely has to be looking over his shoulder.
They should finish fifth, because they are probably the Premier League’s fifth best team. But as he pointed out after Tottenham had spent the Bale money last season, teams splashing out that amount of money should be finishing in, and competing for, the top four.
That’s the return Liverpool’s owners expect after the sale of Luis Sua- rez and funding major investments.
All will be forgiven if Liverpool can lift the FA Cup but it won’t be easy. After their impressive win at Spurs last week – a few days after they’d conceded three against QPR – Tim Sherwood’s team can go into the semi-final in relaxed mood.
They’re also playing well and to Christian Benteke’s strengths, which could expose Liverpool’s vulnerability at the back.
A win for Villa would be Rodgers’ worst nightmare of a nightmare week. And could cost him his job.