Transfer Balls: Raheem Sterling to Real Madrid as ‘mid-table’ Liverpool look for cash
Transfer Balls looks at Raheem Sterling in today’s news. It’s going to be a busy summer for the Liverpool striker. To save you the bother of reading a myriad different publications, we’ll round-up the day’s Sterling news:
Barney Ronay wonders in the Guardian if Sterling is really all that special:
Among the assorted soundbites swirling about in the wake of that unauthorised BBC interview it is the regurgitation of Brendan Rodgers’ claim last year that Sterling is “the best young player in Europe” that seems most startling, and indeed illuminating… The best young player in Europe is an Englishman who has never scored a goal in the Champions League, never won any kind of trophy, and never made any real impact against one of the heavyweights of European or international football. Really?…
Only in the overheated Premier League could a series of promising moments lead to some apparently serious talk of a £50m transfer fee. The real point here is that beyond the island borders of the World’s Most Excitable League, European football is awash with equivalent fine young talent in Sterling’s part of the pitch…
In the Telegraph we lean that Real Madrid are “monitoring” Sterling. Bit creepy, no?
Real Madrid B-team coach Zinedine Zidane says:
“We know who Raheem Sterling is, and of course we are monitoring him as a player. There are very few players in the world who can improve the Real Madrid squad, so it is going to make sense we monitor the progress of the best young players in the world. We monitored Bale for over a year, the same with Isco and also Varane.”
And bought them all. He fails to say which players Real missed out on.
“We monitor many of the best young players in Europe, then if we feel they have something to offer Real Madrid we will contact their club and try and make the next step.”
On RTE, former Manchester United player Eamon Dunphy says Liveprool are now a mid-table club.
“They have American owners who don’t believe in splashing the cash so I think it’s a tough job. [Brendan Rodgers] has done it quite well, you can argue either way, but it looks to me like Liverpool’s fate is to now become a club in mid-table that sells its best players and won’t really go to war in the summer, in the way that Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea will to buy in big talent…
“You can only see Manchester United going one way, which is forward, but you can’t see Liverpool going forward on the same trajectory.”
The Mail employs Adrian Durham to state the obvious to Liverpool fans:
Raheem Sterling is earning less than Mario Balotelli. In fact he’s earning less than half of what Balotelli is on at Liverpool. Puts a few things into perspective doesn’t it? Liverpool Football Club have made some poor decisions in terms of signings and contracts since Luis Suarez departed, and those mistakes look set to cost them their place in the top four.
After the speculation, the Times sums up:
Liverpool’s position on Sterling remains unchanged with Rodgers determined to resist any offers for the 20-year-old this summer but Real, like Manchester City, Chelsea and, to a lesser extent, Arsenal, have the financial resources to test their resolve if Sterling’s contract issues continue to escalate.
Lots more to follow…
Posted: 7th, April 2015 | In: Liverpool, Sports Comments (2) | TrackBack | Permalink
