Sterling moves on from quarrel
NO NONSENSE: COACH HAS STAMPED OUT CLUB RIVALRY
Raheem Sterling said he allowed his “emotions” to get the better of him leading to a brief altercation with Liverpool’s Joe Gomez that resulted in the Manchester City player being dropped for tomorrow’s Euro 2020 qualifier against Montenegro.
Sterling admitted on Instagram on Tuesday he and Gomez “had words” when they met up at the England camp the day after Liverpool’s 3-1 win over the defending champions which left the latter nine points adrift of Juergen Klopp’s side.
“Both Joe and I have had words and figured things out and moved on,” Sterling said.
“We are in a sport where emotions run high and I am man enough to admit when emotions got the better of me.
“This is why we play this sport because of our love for it – me and Joe Gomez are good, we both understand it was a five to 10-second thing... it’s done, we move forward and will not make this bigger than it is.
“Let’s get focus on our game on Thursday (tomorrow),” Sterling added.
The Daily Mail reported that Gomez and Sterling had to be separated by team-mates on Monday after a “physical confrontation”.
The pair had also clashed on the field towards the end of Sunday’s match.
England manager Gareth Southgate moved quickly to deal with the issue – arguably one of his achievements during his time in the post has been to erase the rivalries between members from different clubs which plagued previous England squads.
The likes of former star defender Rio Ferdinand has spoken about how when they used to join the England camp he and Manchester United players would stick together and find it hard to mix with Chelsea or Liverpool stars.
In a statement prior to Sterling’s Instagram post issued by the Football Association, Southgate alluded to that and took the decision to not consider Sterling for the Montenegro match. – AFP