BRENDAN RODGERS HAS rubbished any talk of Raheem Sterling signing for Manchester City this summer by declaring that their Etihad rivals are still ’20 years’ away from being as big a club as Liverpool.
The 20-year-old winger has been heavily linked with a move to City in recent weeks, after he reportedly turned down a new contract worth £100,000-per-week with the Anfield club.
Ahead of today’s FA Cup semi-final against Aston Villa at Wembley, Rodgers rejected any suggestion that Manchester City have become a “bigger club”.
“If you say that Manchester City is a bigger club than Liverpool, you’re wrong,” he said. “I’ve got big respect for what City are doing — they’re trying to build it the right way. But at this moment you can’t compare the size of the two clubs”.
“You’ve got Liverpool and Manchester United as the two biggest clubs in this country — the rest of them are fighting to be there over the next 20 years”.
Sterling’s current deal keeps him at Liverpool until summer 2017 and Rodgers maintained that Liverpool remains the best club for the England international going forward, even if he continues to stall on a new contract.
“He’s got to a hundred appearances quicker than Lionel Messi or Ronaldo. It’s about the football development of they young player. He’s developing really, really well here”.
“I said last year about him being one of the best players in Europe, if not the best, just how well he was doing. He’s just turned 20 and the next one to come here will be Jordon Ibe”.
With Steven Gerrard returning from suspension for the Villa game, Rodgers also took the opportunity to reiterate his desire to give the Reds captain the perfect send-off by winning the FA Cup final but says he is under no pressure to start the veteran midfielder today.
“Everyone respects that I always want to do what is best for the team, the collective, and always will. Status and star quality has never bothered me really,” he said.