Raheem Sterling | Signs for Man City for £49,000,000

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Striker10 said:
I'll spell it out for you. I'm saying the Agents motivation is £ regardless of whether he thinks it's right or not. It's easy money for a 34 year old nobody. Now what does sterling actually think? Well, I don't know - because I know what an adults influence over a 'child' can be like. In this case, obviously it's the agent who Sterling listens to and trusts. Maybe Sterling wants to leave! Regardless, I just dislike agents period.

Scholes never had an agent I don't think. The club really looked to screw him over, didn't they :) Big clubs, aren't crooks lol. Well, not all of them. If you are on big wages, get an accountant and have an agent ONLY if millions ain't enough. Too much money goes to these feckwits and out of the game. Who ends up being the feckwits? The players, because they're thick as shite. All the money in the world and they rely on people to be honest when being honest could cost them a fortune...
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You're very naive.

In terms of Sterling himself, he will be surrounded by players on significantly bigger contracts than him and who he's outperforming. He'll also know other players and bigger clubs and might know what sort of deals they're on.

Putting money aside, he's also clearly ambitious to move to a club playing in the CL. He has that chance now and may not get that chance again. If anything, moving on is the bravest thing to do and when you actually think about it, probably the best thing for his career. That's a mature decision to make. The easy option wuld just be to sign a new deal.

In terms of agents in general, there will be good and bad, as in every profession. If you think clubs wouldnt take advantage of a player then you're a fool. Players get treat well when they're wanted but once they fall out of favour, or suffer an injury theyre on the scrapheap and the clubs couldnt care less. Players are a commodity and the clubs view them like that. They generate millions on the back of these kids and the players deserve a cut as far as I'm concerned.

If I were a footballer who knew nothing about the ins and outs of the game, or the legal formalities of a contract then I'd have an agent, lawyer and whomever else in my corner to ensure that I got the very best deal I could, and I'm sure you would too. If you wouldn't and you'd just walk in and sign whatever was on the table then I'm not sure how you could suggest anyone else was thick.
 
Varun said:
My memory's shit but I seem to remember it being in the papers before his interview.
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There are too many if's and but's about the whole story, forums (including RAWK) get carried away as we all like to speculate and talk about football. Including having a laugh at our rival's expense.
However, we don't fully know what's going on - all we do know is the player possibly wants to leave, Liverpool have said they don't want to sell.
 
The agent is 100% right about the PR machine of Liverpool and I don't know if anyone would dispute it. I was watching SSN yesterday for half an hour, in that time they had Souness, Carragher, Redknapp and Barnes all suggesting he stay and he'd be "Stupid" to leave...over at BBC they had the likes of Lawrenson saying the same thing. Their only reason for saying he should stay? Because "Liverpool is the best club ever" and all that shite, Sterling may be greedy but it's his job and he wants a chance to make good money and win trophies, is there anything wrong with that? This whole saga has been spun in the typical Liverpool media love in that we get every time any negative thing comes out about them, the overload of defensive messages from ex legends. It's painful to watch.

His agent is out to protect his player. Carragher rightly or wrongly slated Sterling on MNF so surely he has a right to say something back? Liverpool have set Sterling up with all this and made him look an idiot, fair play to the agent and Sterling for defending themselves, I'm sick of all the Liverpool media shite personally.
 
johnny boy said:
Can you explain what Liverpool have done or am I missing something?
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they've done stuff, which is the issue. the de gea situation is about the perfect way to handle a contract wrangle like this. no major public pressure to sign, no leaks to the press about money or terms, no having any player who ever played for the club ever to be a floating head for sky sports, telling him to sign and ditch his agent.

all lvg and the club has done is just reassure him that he's a great keeper and how much he's grown at united and how integral he is to the team and to say he's been offered a contract but has to decide whether to stay or move to madrid. stuff everyone knew anyway. he knows he's wanted and isn't subjected to fan abuse ex-pros pretending to know him or the situation and the constant questions overshadowing his game.

no matter what happens liverpool will be the big losers out of the saga and a lot of that is their own doing. de gea could sign a new contract tomorrow and it's all swept under the carpet or he could leave and most would wish him well and hopefully he'll try to ensure we get a good deal for him. that's not going to happen with sterling now, he's completely alienated and is being treated like a black sheep. for me that's largely due to liverpool's ego and their belief that they're still one of the big boys, despite not being able to compete with them on or off the field.
 
Real quotes or not, to be fair the agent has been called a knob by a dozen or so ex-Liverpool pundits and non-pundits coming out of the woodwork to chime in. Sterling has been labeled greedy and selfish and worse. I've never seen United do that, maybe one or two comments about agents turning their clients' heads, but not an all out war like this.
 
Oggmonster said:
The agent is 100% right about the PR machine of Liverpool and I don't know if anyone would dispute it. I was watching SSN yesterday for half an hour, in that time they had Souness, Carragher, Redknapp and Barnes all suggesting he stay and he'd be "Stupid" to leave...over at BBC they had the likes of Lawrenson saying the same thing.
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That's not Liverpool though is it, that's the media asking ex-players looking for a story. SKY have news updates every hour, they are always out there searching for that 'BREAKING NEWS'
 
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Unprofessional comments and lousy behaviour by agent but...

All these Liverpool greats saying he's stupid to leave the club and whatnot is wierd to say the least. Why is it stupid, he wants to blay at a better club which will win things in the future and right now Liverpool is all but that kind of club. After last year they're in demise and dont see that changing in the next season.

All right they could stay he handled the story poorly but his career is his decision. All those Liverpool past greats have their red tinted glasses on it seems. As it was said in that article the other day - if you ask them Liverpool is special, great, big, exclusive, wonderful, beautiful..
 
johnny boy said:
There are too many if's and but's about the whole story, forums (including RAWK) get carried away as we all like to speculate and talk about football. Including having a laugh at our rival's expense.
However, we don't fully know what's going on - all we do know is the player possibly wants to leave, Liverpool have said they don't want to sell.
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The exact 100k figure being leaked can't be speculation. There was a leak, from the club in all possibility, to make him sign by backing him in a corner. The likes of carragher going on sermons has just added to the poor way in which this has been handled.

The stance of not selling is fine, it's the public manner in which he's being forced to sign or look like a money grabber that's ridiculous especially as moving away makes sense even from a footballing pov.
 
rimaldo said:
they've done stuff, which is the issue. the de gea situation is about the perfect way to handle a contract wrangle like this. no major public pressure to sign, no leaks to the press about money or terms, no having any player who ever played for the club ever to be a floating head for sky sports, telling him to sign and ditch his agent.

all lvg and the club has done is just reassure him that he's a great keeper and how much he's grown at united and how integral he is to the team and to say he's been offered a contract but has to decide whether to stay or move to madrid. stuff everyone knew anyway. he knows he's wanted and isn't subjected to fan abuse ex-pros pretending to know him or the situation and the constant questions overshadowing his game.

no matter what happens liverpool will be the big losers out of the saga and a lot of that is their own doing. de gea could sign a new contract tomorrow and it's all swept under the carpet or he could leave and most would wish him well and hopefully he'll try to ensure we get a good deal for him. that's not going to happen with sterling now, he's completely alienated and is being treated like a black sheep. for me that's largely due to liverpool's ego and their belief that they're still one of the big boys, despite not being able to compete with them on or off the field.
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That's not all necessarily the club though, jeez there are so many ex-Liverpool players as pundits and in the media now, they have loads to choose from to grab some headlines and another story.

I can't comment on De Gea, you are right it does seem to stay in house. And each summer we have a major headache at LFC, we had Torres, Suarez and now Sterling.
I don't know what the full story is from within the club, it used to be much more private and you wouldn't hear a word until someone signed.

Now with 'social media' and all it's a whole new ball game - could the club do better? Sure, but the players interviews and agent comments, seem to be the main points here.
 
johnny boy said:
That's not Liverpool though is it, that's the media asking ex-players looking for a story. SKY have news updates every hour, they are always out there searching for that 'BREAKING NEWS'
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They may not be on the club payroll but they have the same agenda. Name me a single ex player who criticized Rodgers, FSG, Dalglish, Rafa, etc
 
rimaldo said:
they've done stuff, which is the issue. the de gea situation is about the perfect way to handle a contract wrangle like this. no major public pressure to sign, no leaks to the press about money or terms, no having any player who ever played for the club ever to be a floating head for sky sports, telling him to sign and ditch his agent.

all lvg and the club has done is just reassure him that he's a great keeper and how much he's grown at united and how integral he is to the team and to say he's been offered a contract but has to decide whether to stay or move to madrid. stuff everyone knew anyway. he knows he's wanted and isn't subjected to fan abuse ex-pros pretending to know him or the situation and the constant questions overshadowing his game.

no matter what happens liverpool will be the big losers out of the saga and a lot of that is their own doing. de gea could sign a new contract tomorrow and it's all swept under the carpet or he could leave and most would wish him well and hopefully he'll try to ensure we get a good deal for him. that's not going to happen with sterling now, he's completely alienated and is being treated like a black sheep. for me that's largely due to liverpool's ego and their belief that they're still one of the big boys, despite not being able to compete with them on or off the field.
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Good post. Both cases started off as star players looking to leave. One is currently getting booed by fans, criticised by ex players and being called a money grabber while the other is still abs loved by fans and the public alike even though everyone knows he's highly likely to leave.
 
:lol: interesting last few pages. What seems clear now is that he'll be off. I reckon he'll be at City next season, or even Chelsea (if they offload Oscar +1).
 
mu4c_20le said:
They may not be on the club payroll but they have the same agenda. Name me a single ex player who criticized Rodgers, FSG, Dalglish, Rafa, etc
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Most have, the likes of Houghton, Evans, Molby, Lawrenson and more have been extremely critical of some of the managers and performances.

If you listened to the likes of Ian St John and John Aldridge on Radio City they are more critical of LFC than anyone else.
 
RAWK: A Warning from History(ski) ~

fecking hell, good to see all the Nazis showing up in force in this thread, we're not going to send Sterling to the gulag and nor should we.
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Liverpool have quite clearly caused this situation themselves.

You can't go public with a contract offer saying ridiculous things like 'it's a lot of money for a young player', and not expect your player to feel under duress to sign. It was a pressurising tactic played out in public that has back-fired spectacularly.

And in the same breath they're lauding him as 'the best young player in Europe'. If you believe that, then don't low-ball him and pressurise him to sign in front of the media.

Total amateur operation. No wonder they can't hold onto star players.
 
johnny boy said:
That's not all necessarily the club though, jeez there are so many ex-Liverpool players as pundits and in the media now, they have loads to choose from to grab some headlines and another story.

I can't comment on De Gea, you are right it does seem to stay in house. And each summer we have a major headache at LFC, we had Torres, Suarez and now Sterling.
I don't know what the full story is from within the club, it used to be much more private and you wouldn't hear a word until someone signed.

Now with 'social media' and all it's a whole new ball game - could the club do better? Sure, but the players interviews and agent comments, seem to be the main points here.
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i'd say they're repeating what seems to be a club mantra of "liverpool is the best and anyone who wants to leave must be greedy or stupid." they're all singing from the same hymn sheet, regardless of whether they've been briefed to or not.

with so many ex pro's and fans in the media, liverpool would be wise to be a bit more proactive in disassociating themselves with them or having rodgers be far more diplomatic when discussing it. he's only fanned flames and given sound bites for pundits to latch on to and speak about ad nauseum. all it would have taken was a simple "it's a private matter between the club and sterling, we're doing all we can to get him to sign on here. he's a star player for us and we want to grow together. he's a big part of my project and in the project circle of sphereness he's a big part of the synergy we're looking to amalgamate across all departments of the team. we're want evolution, not revolution."

it's fairly obvious someone in the club is leaking things to the press to put pressure on sterling and make it seem like the club have done all they can to convince him to stay. they want him painted as the bad guy. that's no way to get him to sign or convince him he's valued, appreciated and protected. he's been hung out to dry and only has himself and his agent fighting his corner. hence the stupid bbc interview and the agent comments today.

that's the crux of the issue. your bartering and negotiation tactic appears to be "let's just make sure everyone tells them liverpool is fantastic, we don't have the trophies, money or prestige we once did, we can't speak for ourselves any more so we have to speak loudly about ourselves." which has worked piss poorly every time it's ever been used, outside of convincing gerrard to stay. and that was only due to him having liverpool heartstrings to pull on.
 
Kraftwerker said:
Liverpool have quite clearly caused this situation themselves.

You can't go public with a contract offer saying ridiculous things like 'it's a lot of money for a young player', and not expect your player to feel under duress to sign. It was a pressurising tactic played out in public that has back-fired spectacularly.

And in the same breath they're lauding him as 'the best young player in Europe'. If you believe that, then don't low-ball him and pressurise him to sign in front of the media.

Total amateur operation. No wonder they can't hold onto star players.
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Spot on.
 
"I think he is the best young player in European football at the moment," he told Sky Sports.

"He is 19 years of age and I don't see anyone better. He is intelligent with the ball and he has been concentrating on scoring goals.

"His first goal was a wonderful strike and his pass for Luis' goal was like a top midfield player. Then there was his positioning for the counter-attack for the third goal.

"His overall performance has shown so much maturity and, for me, he is the best young player in European football at the moment."

Premier League: Liverpool's Raheem Sterling best young player in Europe says Brendan Rodgers
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Ah well, he was the best young player in European football just last year according to Rodgers, its natural after selling their best player, a disappointing season and missing out on CL football he would want to go somewhere more fitting of his talent.
 
Kraftwerker said:
Liverpool have quite clearly caused this situation themselves.

You can't go public with a contract offer saying ridiculous things like 'it's a lot of money for a young player', and not expect your player to feel under duress to sign. It was a pressurising tactic played out in public that has back-fired spectacularly.

And in the same breath they're lauding him as 'the best young player in Europe'. If you believe that, then don't low-ball him and pressurise him to sign in front of the media.

Total amateur operation. No wonder they can't hold onto star players.
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They've handles it poorly but they're not low balling him. 100k a week is a very fair deal for him atm. It's simply a case of them not being good enough for him to commit long term Imo.
 
Varun said:
They've handles it poorly but they're not low balling him. 100k a week is a very fair deal for him atm. It's simply a case of them not being good enough for him to commit long term Imo.
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The point is, if you're going to call him 'the best young player in Europe' you should probably pay him to reflect that.

Sterling is on a Hazard trajectory. Hazard probably gets over 200k a week.

Sterling looks around him and sees wasters like Glen Johnson getting 120k a week. But he's expected to sign for 5 years on 20k a week less, but it's ok because his cringe manager will tell everyone he's the best young player in Europe.
 
Varun said:
They've handles it poorly but they're not low balling him. 100k a week is a very fair deal for him atm. It's simply a case of them not being good enough for him to commit long term Imo.
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It's not about the money is it. No matter how much Liverpool would love to have everyone think that :wenger:
 
What I don't understand is why on earth Liverpool don't just pay him whatever he wants. Any other club would. They've lost their only big stars in Suarez and now Gerrard, and he's all they've got left. It's easy to understand a player wanting more money when players like Falcao, RvP, Di Maria are on 250k a week when he clearly contributes a lot more. At the same time the wages in England have gone mad in recent years compared to other leagues. Isco, who is arguably a better player than Sterling, isn't earning anything close to 100k a week.

If Liverpool want to play with the big boys they need to keep their best players. Sometimes that includes paying more than you want in wages, but hopefully it will pay you back long term.
 
Kraftwerker said:
The point is, if you're going to call him 'the best young player in Europe' you should probably pay him to reflect that.

Sterling is on a Hazard trajectory. Hazard probably gets over 200k a week.

Sterling looks around him and sees wasters like Glen Johnson getting 120k a week. But he's expected to sign for 5 years on 20k a week less, but it's ok because his cringe manager will tell everyone he's the best young player in Europe.
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He's nowhere close to being the player hazard is atm, hazard wasn't making 200k when he just showed potential instead of delivering week in week out. Also, it's not as if him signing on 100k a week means that's all he'd be paid even if he improves. As he does well, he'd get the raises his performance merit. 100k a week would be very good money for one of the best young players around, that's about the money they make unless you're a gotze and just on another level.
 
Liverpool could hope to convince him with a few good signings then go back with a tweaked deal. But it looks like it has gone too far now, it's all looking very bitter.
 
Well if the quotes are true, he sounds like an absolute dickhead.. who do he think he is? The Suge Knight of football agents. I don't even care where this saga is heading now, wheter he stays or goes, just want it resolved quickly and not dragged out till mid July when everybody has made deals and were scrapping the barrel with 30/40m spare.
 
Liverpool have treated him appallingly - underpaying him for years because of his age. And I thought that the way Rogers treated him in that documentary would be considered workplace bullying if I did it to a twenty year in my office. Nasty club. He's right to want out.
 
Cheech Wizard said:
Well if the quotes are true, he sounds like an absolute dickhead.. who do he think he is? The Suge Knight of football agents. I don't even care where this saga is heading now, wheter he stays or goes, just want it resolved quickly and not dragged out till mid July when everybody has made deals and were scrapping the barrel with 30/40m spare.
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Surely the situation has become untenable now.
 
No one coming out looking good in this. Not the agent, not Liverpool and certainly not Sterling.

Long may it continue.

The agent does have previous as seen in the cases of Odemwinge and Berahino. Berahino ended up staying and playing quite well, so don't think its necessarily a given that Sterling leaves.
 
Varun said:
He's nowhere close to being the player hazard is atm, hazard wasn't making 200k when he just showed potential instead of delivering week in week out. Also, it's not as if him signing on 100k a week means that's all he'd be paid even if he improves. As he does well, he'd get the raises his performance merit. 100k a week would be very good money for one of the best young players around, that's about the money they make unless you're a gotze and just on another level.
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Doesn't matter.

If you call him the best young player in the world, you reap what you sow. The club plant these delusions of grandeur in his head, then try to play his contract negotiations out in public and make him feel like he should be honoured to sign such an agreement with them.
 
johnny boy said:
Hardly , player looks like he wants to leave, the club have said so far he is going nowhere, talks are planned.

Maybe we should just do what United did with Rooney and throw a bucket load of cash at him to make him stay ....?
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The whole saga has been played out in the public eye and I doubt that it is all a product of Sterling's agent. Liverpool are orchestrating some of the media spin, certainly.

As to your question, the answer is actually yes. An inability to stump up high wages limits Liverpool in the transfer market. As a result, the best players elsewhere won't come and the best players already at the club will be looking for pastures new.
 
I'm beginning to think that the whole notion of paying someone less simply because they're young is flawed, and also very convenient for cheapskate employers; similar to the way that women are often underpaid. Talent is talent, and should be rewarded accordingly.
 
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