Interesting take on the Sterling nonsense from a popular website for us Yanks.
http://screamer.deadspin.com/liverpool-dont-deserve-raheem-sterling-1713104181
Fair warning, you will see the word soccer instead of football. Please find it in your hearts to look past this.
A very good article.
"The second and far more troubling factor is how his pushing for a move has caused the English punditry class, especially those with a connection to the Liverpool front office, to lose their goddamned minds. For months now, a parade of ex-Liverpool players and newspaper writers have excoriated Sterling. Openly, publicly, in as ugly a fashion as they can without crossing the line into something too much even for the ravenous English appetite for tabloids and [Poor language removed] talk.
Leading the charge has been former Liverpool defender and current Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher. He’s been riding Sterling as far back as
October of 2014, well before this current transfer saga kicked off in earnest. As things have snowballed, Carragher’s been right at the forefront,
red-faced and wound up on TV, visibly seething about this kid taking on
his club. Liverpool. Hallowed, you’ll never walk alone Liverpool".
"I can’t comment on systemic British racism, but I do know my lying eyes. When they’re making t-shirts for Luis Suárez to let him know that he’s supported after getting suspended for using a racial slur while doing everything short of calling Sterling uppity for years, well, one starts to wonder about some of the most visibly apparent differences between the two men. Hell, Suárez was halfway out the door to Arsenal and they begged him to come back. Sterling’s not gone anywhere yet, with only the buzz of £40 million City bids around him, and Anfield is booing him while he’s not even on the pitch".
"For the longest time, I’ve thought that Liverpool’s bluster, the sheer balls to strut about like you’re the best club in the world while you’re usually closer to 10th than 1st, was just that: bluster. It was, I thought, a way of keeping fans who remember the old days in line. A comfort against a world with new, big-money predators. A reliance on a creaking history in order to reassure everyone who buys tickets that the club still mattered to everyone in the world, that it was still the national treasure and cultural export it once was".
"But this is looking increasingly untrue. The only explanation that makes any sense is that the Liverpool brass believe their own line every bit as much as their fans do. The 2014 challenge wasn’t a blip brought on by arguably the best pure striker in the world having the best season of his life. It was a birthright, a return to form. Liverpool are the Knicks. They’re the 1980s UCLA Bruins basketball team. Their best is fading in the rearview mirror, increasingly remembered only by middle-aged men crammed in pubs and sports bars, whispering names like Dalglish and Souness in reverent tones, as if those greats of yore could be conjured by quiet invocations and clenched eyes. And when something resembling the Liverpool of legend re-emerges from the mist, as in 2014, the frenzy begins anew".
"So it was that on the last day of the season we were treated to the sight of fans haranguing Sterling as Liverpool crashed to an embarrassing 6-1 loss to Stoke, their heaviest loss in 52 years. Sterling, who was on the bench and played no part in the sorry display, was booed mercilessly by the traveling Liverpool fans. He was called a greedy [Poor language removed].
Then he was booed by England fans during the England-Ireland friendly. Definitely better to be right than good, Liverpool fans.
Really, why would Sterling want to be a part of that? It’s a bipolar organization, one where you’re bound to a monolithic obeisance to past glory while everyone is also really angry that they’re more likely to be rivals to Stoke than to Chelsea. Moreover, why would
any young player want to be a part of that, especially an English one? Why subject yourself to the abuse which comes with being part of a Liverpool team?
Sterling’s going to leave. Maybe this summer, certainly by next. He has a touch more swagger than his accomplishments merit. His agent is almost certainly a villain, because sports agents are pretty much always villains. But I also hope he makes a billion dollars and puts a hat trick past a hapless Simon Mignolet while Jordan Henderson is pushing for an inevitable move away of his own. It’s the least Jamie Carragher and Phil Johnson and the like—bullies and loudmouths, all—deserve".
