Raheem Sterling Should Take Note Of Gerrard’s Liverpool Advice
As Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard prepares to make his final Anfield appearance for Liverpool today, before he departs for LA Galaxy, current Liverpool star Raheem Sterling should take note.
At twenty years of age, Sterling is fast becoming the ‘Reds’ standout creative talent. His performances in the past few seasons have drawn the attention of major European clubs; with Real Madrid, Juventus, Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea all linked with a big summer move for the Liverpool forward.
That speculation has only intensified with reports suggesting that Raheem has rejected numerous contracts to extend his stay at Liverpool, news outlets are even reporting that the England international snubbed a new bumper £100k a week deal. If that’s true then you’d imagine that it’s not all about the money with Sterling.
His ambition could be regular Champions League football and winning trophies. Fair enough, that is a fine ambition to have.
But he really should look at his current captain’s career.
Gerrard has been at Liverpool since he was a kid and truly loves the club.
Today Steven will make his 707th appearance for the club. That career has spanned seventeen years!
The midfield man is an iconic hero at Liverpool. Surely Sterling should want to achieve that kind of legendary status during his career.
Now lets go back to the European ambitions of Sterling.
Well Gerrard has made eighty-seven appearances in the Champions League and forty-two in the Europa League/UEFA Cup, obviously all at Liverpool. Plus he’s won both competitions during his Anfield career.
Liverpool proved last season that they can challenge for the Premier League title when everything comes together.
Sterling’s advisors may point to this season as being a disappointment but the club are only just going to miss out on the Top Four places and all they need is a good preseason and some wise buys to get them fighting for Champions League places again.
If I were Sterling, I would be worried that if he were to move, that although he’d join a Champions League side, he wouldn’t necessarily get as much game time as he does under Brendan Rodgers.
The creative forward has made thirty-three starts in the league this term and also made six appearances in the Champions League. Would that happen at one of Europe’s other top clubs at this stage of his career? I am not so sure.
The player, although already a star performer, still has areas to improve on. Next season you’d be expecting/wanting Sterling to influence games more and dominating defenders with his pace and direct play. I’d imagine that he will want to hit double figures in both the leagues scoring and the assists charts, currently he has seven goals and seven assists this term.
Importantly Raheem should spend time with Stevie Gerrard and ask him his thoughts about the youngsters career options.
Let’s face it Gerrard has been in the exact same place.
Back in 2002 Gerrard was on the verge of leaving Liverpool for Chelsea in a huge transfer deal. But at the end of the day Steven just couldn’t leave Liverpool and hasn’t regretted his decision to stay.
The Liverpool captain has said that Sterling should stay with the club…
“For me, I am always going to be biased towards this club. My advice to Raheem is where he is at now, he needs a manager who believes in him, who is going to play him and who is going to coach him. I think there is no one better for him than Brendan Rodgers.”
Gerrard has hit the nail on the head for me. Sterling may or may not become a Liverpool legend. He probably won’t stay at Anfield for the duration of his career, the club don’t mean the same to him as it does for Gerrard.
For me, I think Steven Gerrard could be Raheem’s best advisor in all this. At Liverpool Sterling will only grow as a player and if he signs a new deal then he’ll surely become the clubs next fan favourite.
But my head tells me that Raheem Sterling may just ignore Gerrard’s advice and also leave Liverpool this summer.
Posted on May 16th, 2015 by scott
Filed under: Article
Unfortunately Sterlings agent has turned his head. He has had him tapped up by Wenger. this is another Suarez situation, Arsenal got away with that one because Liverpool didn’t pursue it but this time they should take them to the cleaners.