Raheem Sterling’s agent, Aidy Ward is back in the news to divulge some more details on Sterling’s last days at Liverpool before heading to Manchester City. Ward also goes one step further and says new manager Jurgen Klopp would’ve gotten the best out of Sterling if he was still at Liverpool.
Ward put the blame on former Liverpool Manager Brendan Rodgers as to why Sterling is at Manchester City and not still at Liverpool. Talking to Mail Online, Ward said that Sterling was unhappy with how he was treated by Rodgers and wanted to leave. Well at least that’s the explanation today. It definitely wasn’t that Manchester City was going to meet the insane contract demands set out by Ward. No, it was because Sterling didn’t like how Rodgers treated him.
I’m not saying it couldn’t be both reasons that contributed to Sterling’s end at Liverpool but Ward seems like he’s making it sound like Rodgers is the only reason Sterling left and that didn’t appear to be the case when this was all going on. Ward went in detail about the contract negotiations and how he explained why things went for the worse with Rodgers.
“In December, I spoke to Liverpool and said we’ll sign a contract if there is a buy-out clause. Those clauses are now common practice. They said no to that. Then there was an underhandedness, there were sly remarks. In press conferences, Brendan told everyone Raheem would sign. Why do that?”
“I knew, Brendan knew and Liverpool knew there was an issue. Right now he probably should be a Liverpool player, but he’s not and he’s in a great place at City. I had no problem with Chief Executive Ian Ayre, for example. I have no issue with anyone but Rodgers. He had a massive job with massive funds. How did he do?”
“Good coach, but as a manager, I didn’t like certain things about how he dealt with Raheem. 50% of the players would probably tell you Brendan is not a good manager but is a good coach.”
“[Jurgen Klopp] probably would have been a great fit for Raheem. Passionate, disciplined in the right way, new ideas, not afraid of trying new things. He’ll do great at Liverpool.
“Would Raheem under Klopp have been a good scenario? Yes, 100%. Mainly because of the person he is. The passion, drive, emotion, wanting to achieve. Raheem has all of this, but you won’t always see it outwardly. Working with Klopp could have been great. He’s going to get the best out of those players. It could have been a dream come true.”
Everything Aidy Ward may have been saying has been the truth or at the very least, part of the complete story, but him revealing all of this now just looks like he’s trying to save face so he can do future business with Liverpool now that Rodgers is out of there. That would be the only way to explain the timing of everything and the motivation of airing this dirty laundry.
Personally, if Ward was really into satisfying the needs of his client, he should just shut up and not dwell on the past. I’m sure for Sterling, he is just glad that that transfer mess ended and he just wants to get on with his career at Manchester City. I’m pretty sure Sterling doesn’t want to answer questions about his move from Liverpool to Manchester City so maybe his agent should stop bringing it up.
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