RAHEEM STERLING’S AGENT has suggested the England international might have stayed at Liverpool had he known Brendan Rodgers would have been replaced with Jürgen Klopp.
The 20-year-old joined Manchester City for a transfer fee in the region of £49 million and Sterling’s representative has now revealed the presence of Rodgers was one of the main reasons behind his decision to move on.
“The new Liverpool manager probably would have been a great fit for Raheem,” Aidy Ward told the Daily Mail.
“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%, definitely, mainly because of the person Klopp is – the passion, the drive, the emotion, wanting to achieve.
“Raheem has all of this, but you won’t always see it outwardly. Working with Klopp – that could have been great. He’s going to get the best out of those players. It could have been a dream come true.
“Raheem could’ve stayed. He should be at Liverpool. 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. I have no issue with anyone but Rodgers: he had a massive job with massive funds.”
