The Raheem Sterling saga has rumbled on this week, and frankly, it’s becoming more and more ridiculous. The youngster’s exit now looks both inevitable and necessary, before his terrible attitude and incredibly public displays of petulance do any further damage to the morale of the rest of the squad.
SEE MORE:
Raheem Sterling ‘phones in sick’ and misses Liverpool training – club sends doctors round to check if he’s lying…
Rodgers ASKS Sterling to stay, offers MORE money, Sterling says NO & tells Rodgers he WON’T play for him!
Guardian name exciting primary Sterling replacement, as Raheem demands move
If Sterling’s proposed move to Manchester City does eventually go through (via Independent), it won’t be the only transfer exit in our club’s history to be by marred by controversy. We count down ten of the most infamous deals of the Premier League era in the list below… How would the loss of Sterling compare with the departure of these players?
Daniel Agger
Despite a precession of injury problems, the Danish defender was a popular figure at Anfield. However, his eight-year stay on Merseyside came to an unfortunate end following a bust up with manager Brendan Rodgers. The Northern Irishman restricted Agger to just 23 appearances during the 2013-14 season and he sealed a return to former club Brondby soon after. We replaced him with the signing of Dejan Lovren from Southampton…
Speaking about the incident, Agger is quoted in the Daily Mail as saying: “Let me put it this way, the manager and me were perhaps not on the same page in all of last season. I felt that he didn’t appreciate the things I could have contributed. When I feel that, then it’s time to move on. Where me and him maybe went wrong from each other, was that I’m very direct. I say things as they are. Maybe it’s wrong to expect it [others to agree] sometimes.”
Robbie Fowler
Fowler left Liverpool for the first time after falling out with then manager Gerard Houllier and his assistant Phil Thompson, with whom he had a training ground confrontation. As a result, he was left out at the start of the 2001-02 season and struggled to regain his place in the team. Michael Owen and Emile Heskey began to establish themselves at Houllier’s first-choice strike pair in Fowler’s absence and he eventually sealed a move to Leeds.
“I still get on very well with Gerard and I don’t want to say he forced me out, but I think people can read between the lines,” Fowler told The Times. “Things like that happen on training grounds every day, arguments between players and coaches, but the amount of publicity it got was frightening. I missed out on another medal because of that [the 2001 Charity Shield, we won 2-1 against Man United] and that is what hurt me more than anything.”
Charles Itandje
He might never have made a Premier League appearance during his three years at Anfield, but the Cameroon goalkeeper did something so unforgivable that he ensured that he would always be remembered. After the memorial service for the twentieth anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster in April 2009, complaints were made by members of the congregation that Itandje had been ‘laughing and behaving inappropriately’.
He received a multitude of threats and complaints over the incident, while his increasing stress levels caused by the abuse reportedly caused him to have eczema on his hand. When he did eventually leave the club the following year he said: “I am sorry. I am sorry. I am sorry. A thousand times, I am sorry. To the club, to the fans and especially to the families, I am deeply sorry” (via BBC).
Brad Jones
The Australian was furious when Liverpool performed a U-turn over a new contract offer. Jones had reportedly been told that he would be given an extension to his deal, which expired at the end of last season, but instead he was allowed to leave and was replaced by Bolton’s Adam Bogdan. According to the Daily Mail, he was happy with his role as Simon Mignolet’s understudy and was looking forward to assisting the Belgian next season.
Speaking on social media earlier this year, he said: “I would have loved to have stayed at the club I have supported since the age of 5 but sometimes the dream ends. I would also like to add my thanks to all the LFC fans for the support that I have received over the past 5 years.”
Javier Mascherano
Despite only being at Anfield for a short time, Mascherano blamed Roy Hodgson for his Liverpool exit. According to The Times, Mascherano returned to join pre-season with the Reds in 2010 and held several meetings, where the club made promises to him. He claimed that the promises were never fulfilled, which led to his departure. The Argentine midfielder joined Barcelona and has since enjoyed a wonderfully successful career in Spain.
“I didn’t want to say anything at the time because of my respect for Liverpool. Maybe that was a mistake because it allowed other people to say bad things about me. But I do not regret it. Liverpool is a special club and it does not deserve to be treated badly. The people who were there at the time – the manager [Roy Hodgson] and Christian Purslow – have now gone but they know the truth. They started to make things difficult for me.”
Steve McManaman
McManaman’s saga began in 1997, when Liverpool – fearing he’d leave on a fee – accepted an offer from Barcelona. However, that deal fell apart and he eventually signed a pre-contract agreement with Real Madrid, leaving him five difficult months to remain a Red. He was described as a contract rebel and a mercenary at the time, but Liverpool fans appeared to soften by the end of the season and still gave him a memorable Anfield farewell.
Liverpool manager Roy Evans saw the lighter side of the situation and defended his player, stating: “Macca is so laid-back you would never know he was hurting inside. But he has been. Some of the criticisms have been so unfair. Typical of Macca, he’s responded magnificently.”
Michael Owen
Liverpool’s poor performances in the Premier League and Owen’s desire to be playing regular Champions League football led to a large amount of transfer speculation in the early 2000s. When Houllier was sacked in 2004, the final ties holding Owen to Anfield appeared to be broken. Rafael Benitez left him on the bench for a European qualifier and he sealed a move to Real Madrid a couple of days later, having run his contract down to its final year.
We made just £8m for the sale of Owen, arguably one of the best players on the planet at that stage, and ironically we’d go on to win the Champions League at the end of that season. The striker completed his fall from hero to villain when he eventually joined our arch rivals, Manchester United, in 2009.
Pepe Reina
Reina set his heart on returning to Barcelona, his boyhood club, having been told that Victor Valdes was leaving for Monaco. In anticipation of the move going ahead the Reds signed Simon Mignolet from Sunderland as his replacement. Unfortunately for Reina, Valdes decided to stay and Barcelona pulled out of the deal. The Spaniard eventually joined Napoli on a season-long loan deal, but the damage was done and he never played for us again.
He sealed a permanent switch last summer when he joined Bayern Munich. He made just a couple of appearances in all competitions and was sent-off in the later after just 14 minutes. He’s since completed a move back to Napoli on a permanent basis.
Luis Suarez
A year on from Arsenal’s infamous £40m and one pound bid, Suarez completed a move to Barcelona. The switch came as something of a surprise, with the Reds having narrowly missed out on the Premier League title and sealed a return to Champions League football. But after biting Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini – the third such incident of his career – the striker seemingly realised that it would be impossible for him to return to the Premier League.
Speaking about the move, former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard said (via Sky Sports): “I was actually already on the floor when I saw the bite because we knew we were going out. It was a double blow, knowing you’re going out of the World Cup and knowing you’re going to lose your best player. I knew there was no way back for him then and I knew he was going to engineer a way out.”
Fernando Torres
January 2011 – the most dramatic transfer deadline day in football history. Torres pushed through a £50m move to Chelsea and the Reds responded by signing Suarez and Andy Carroll. Ironically, the Spaniard was never able to recreate his Liverpool form at Stamford Bridge. Having scored 81 goals in 142 appearances for us, he managed just 45 goals in 172 games for the Blues, with only 20 of those coming in the Premier League.
Speaking about the reasons behind his exit, he said of teammate Steven Gerrard: “He talked with me a lot and even when it was said I was leaving [Liverpool] he said: ‘think about yourself and do what’s best for you because you’ve seen how people are leaving and it’s time. You have nothing to prove’. He changed my way of seeing things and showed me that I could get much higher than what I had always thought.”
