20 Apr 2015

'My mind is at Liverpool': £20m 'genius' totally embarrasses Sterling with his humble contract approach

In the aftermath of Liverpool's inglorious FA Cup defeat to Aston Villa, Reds legend Jamie Carragher indirectly criticised contract rebel Raheem Sterling for his ongoing attempt to extort (in a footballing sense) an obscene pay rise out of the club. Unlike Sterling, Philippe Coutinho signed a new deal with the minimum of fuss, and his latest comments about his contract renewal put the overrated attacker to shame.

On Sunday night, Carra tweeted:

"Big games need big players to do big things. Not many of them at Liverpool, which makes [the] wages demands of some ridiculous"

To see an example of true loyalty, simply contrast Sterling's acquisitive contract approach with Coutinho's humility in the same situation. When asked about his contract on Saturday, Liverpool's £20m-rated number-10 told The Telegraph:

“When they [Liverpool] came to me with a proposal I did not need to think twice. I have always been looked after very well, and I am very happy at this football club, so I didn’t even have to think about it.”

On the subject of leaving Liverpool in the future, Coutinho - described by Reds legend John Aldridge as a 'genius' - added:

“My mind is at Liverpool, I’m a Liverpool player and I don’t think about those things because I am happy here and want to be here"

Coutinho's magnanimous comments make a mockery of Sterling's breathtaking rapacity:

* Coutinho is older than Sterling, and (arguably) more important to the team, but he signed his deal without any hesitation. Why? Clearly, he cares more about playing for Liverpool than lining his pockets.

* Sterling has also been 'looked after' by Liverpool, and he claims to be 'happy' at Anfield, but he's still trying to fleece the club. Why? Despite tenuous protestations to the contrary, the answer must surely GREED. If that's not the case, why has he not followed Coutinho's example and signed a new contract?

Fans make lame excuses for Sterling's grasping conduct, but what is the compelling difference between Sterling and Coutinho? Why is it that one player signs a new contract without fuss, and the other holds the club to ransom?

Sterling should've handled his contract issue in the same way as Coutinho, and fans should expect the same kind of response. If not, why not? If Coutinho can accept his deal quickly and graciously, why can't Sterling, who was probably offered a *bigger* salary?

Coutinho could've gone the Sterling route and demanded a ridiculous salary, but despite being one of the club's most important players, he simply signed his deal and got on with it. Why? Simple: he's not a mercenary, and unlike Sterling, he's obviously grateful to play for Liverpool.

Coutinho is the perfect example of the type of player I want at Anfield: an elite footballer who loves Liverpool; wants to play for the Reds, and is not interested in greedily extorting the club. His humble conduct puts Sterling to shame, and hopefully fans can now see that it is possible to sign and retain top players without giving-in to mercenary tactics.

It's heartening to see there are players out there like Coutinho (and Sturridge), who genuinely love Liverpool, and prioritise playing for the club over personal gain. The Reds need more players like those two, and fewer mercenaries like Sterling, who should be sold to the highest bidder ASAP.

* Last reported valuation

Author:


40 comments:

  1. All I gotta say is: L. O. L.

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  2. its very simple. we took Sterling from our academy and there are many players like him capable of having a similar impact if given the same trust and game time(ibe, wilson, canos, kent) so if he wants to go, by all means he can. the great player like Coutinho who want to stay, will stay and wear the great red shirt. in you cant even get past Aston Villa in a semi final then i dont want Sterling anyway. poor yesterday. we need to build a team around Phillipe Coutinho. put a solid midfielder behind him so he can have proper license to freedom, and give him a deadly fast trio to pick passes to. Kongogbia(£30M) can partner Can or Hendo while Konoplyanka(FREE) and Andriy Yarmolenko(£20M) will provide the perfect width, with all their european experience on the wings they will provide the perfect support for Coutinho. then if buy both Paulo Dybala(£29M) and Luciano Vietto(£13M) we will have a formidable strikeforce.


    ------------------------------------------Mingolet
    McCaughlin---------------Skrtel-----------------Sakho------------Flannagan
    -------------------------Hendo----------------Kondogbia
    ----Yarmolenko--------------------Coutinho-------------Konoplyanka
    -------------------------------------------Vietto


    if we get these players, this will be the best transfer window for LFC in years

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  3. *uses magic whiteout button labelled edit*


    shhhhh.....

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  4. more likely,

    ------------------------------------------Mingolet
    taylor----------Skrtel-----------------Sakho----------------Flannagan
    ---------------------Hendo-----------------------allen
    ----coutinho-------------------lallana------------------------ibe
    ----------------- -----------Ings----------------

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  5. Get the recruiting right and Sterling becomes expendable.
    This comment is for you B.R. YNWA

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  6. Konoplyanka - self confessed LFC fan. free transfer, no brainer. good friend of his, Yarmolenko, on fire every season, this season 15 goals/19 assists, big, strong, skillful and quick. no brainer. £20M. Kondogbia, 22, international with france, played at highest level in La liga with sevilla and monaco in ligue 1 and destroyed arsenal at emirates with his work rate and quality. perfect defensive mid patrick viera-esque. and big and tall, what we need. no brainer. Luciano Vietto, next Aguero and already banging goals. £13M release clause? no brainer.


    sell sterling £50M? no brainer. he has no end product and is a support player. he is a very good support player, but when he thinks hes the 'main man' which hes not, hes not so good because his end product poor. but when he plays for the team, like when Suarez was here, he knew his place and was a good support player. if he went to a big team he will also know his place and also be a good support player. but at LFC hes too greedy and often chooses not to pass and his end product gets him nowhere. if we buy Konoplyanaka and Yarmolenko it will show how overrated sterling was and how much he wont be missed.


    we only rely on Sterling so much for his pace and trickery. his end product is poor and if we got Yarmolenko, players capable of long shots, placed or power, free-kicks and pace and trickery along with regular consistent end product, then Sterling will be support or bench warmer for them.

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  7. ill be done with LFC if we buy ings. have we not learnt Allen, Lallana, Borini, Lambert etc these palyers arent LFC standard. we need to aim higher Roberto Firmino, Memphis Depay, Felipe Anderson, Konoplyanka, Yarmolenko, Kevin De Bruyne. theres top talent out there, not some average inconsistent unproven PL performer like Lallana with no european experience at 26 but warrants a £20M price tag. outrageous. not even 20 goal midfielder. £25m is outrageous. how Southampton managed to get £50M of our budget i dont know. because i cant see the results of these players. for the money spent last summer BR must face the sack. if Mourinho had done the same and players like Costa, Fabregas wernt performing they will say what have you done with the money. for this, BR has to go

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  8. turan, griezmann, fabregas were signed for same fee as lallana. turan happens to be a life long lfc fan. valbuena went for some 5m to russia and there are 50 others who we could have got for much less money. now, even if we sign lallana, what do we do with him? we play him as a wing back.same with markovic, we kick suso out, sign this guy for crazy money and then play him wing back the entire season..the list is endless.

    quote of the day -
    'sometimes you can want to win too much'

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  9. £20M for Yaya Toure? alot of people saying he dont fight but thats because City disrespected him by not saying happy birthday to him despite him winning them the title. hes experienced and if we managed to sneak top 4 of them i dont see why he wont join us and linkup with his brother. hes already said he loves liverpool. if we could buy Kondogbia and have Yaya Toure that will be a dream. Yaya Toure is a champion and will repalce Gerrard like no tommorow.

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  10. BR is deluded. he needs to be Assistant Manager and we get Koeman as coach. Markovic, Lallana and Lambert are barbaric signings. £50M worth of crap. did nothing to help us in CL, FA Cup, C1C or the league. waste of money and dont deserve to play for LFC and they know it. if we dont buy Konoplyanka for free after bidding £16M for him then were just silly. Yarmolenko should follow, hes never been injured and we can do with strong players who are reliable unlike Sturridge. Kondogbia is the midfielder we been waiting for 4 how long now. we can get him for £30M. dont buy William Carvalho. players from Portuguese league not good enough for Premier league except Ronaldo and Nani. Di Miria, Falcao, Mangala, Fernando, Markovic all portuguese league players and all flops in PL. go to la liga and maybe you have more success where they sing in stadiums. in england its intense and the atmosphere always rocking, plus cold weather

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  11. In today's football world it is all about money, while i personally have nothing against Sterling looking for a big pay day because we don't know what the future might hold and he may not get another one. But as a reds fan I wouldn't be overly disappointed if we sold him for a nice fee and go with the next man up approach, with the next man up being Ibe.
    Let these guys who wanna hold us to ransom earn their money else where, as long as we get a decent fee we may aswell look to the future rather than fight the enevitable

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  12. no, br needs to somewhere but not here. koeman is a good manager but i'd really want someone with more managerial pedigree at this moment in time. klopp or rafa, that is it for me

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  13. Coutinho has had the experience of being the forgotten man at inter and so appreciates what he has. Sterling may have to learn the hard way getting splinters at city

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  14. What person above the age of 13 (wives/girlfriends excluded) throws a fit if their birthday is forgotten? The whole thing was BS. If it wasn't, I wouldn't want anyone in the team that would take their ball and go home every time he got megged.

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  15. Use caps for LOL.

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  16. De Boer? Perhaps Ancelotti, though that's a reeeeeaally long shot.


    As for BR, Newcastle actually seems like a good fit imo. Needs youthful inspiration, good midtable side, but still higher reputation than say Swans.

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  17. If their interest was only in playing for Liverpool, they wouldn't have needed a pay cut.


    It's nice that Sturridge and Coutinho signed to stay on long term, but let's not act like they are saints because they took a raise to stay here. I'm happy they are here, but they aren't playing for free.


    And that has nothing to do with Sterling's situation.

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  18. You should only want players that enjoy playing at Liverpool FC. Sterling can leave. Only thing that matters is what the Transfer committee and Rodgers if he's still manager this Summer does with the money generated from a possible Sterling sale. If they go about their business like after the Suarez sale then the club will be in deep trouble.
    Coutinho is a gem of a player.

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  19. Sell Sterling for 50 million pounds to Bayern and get Rafa and hand him that money. We can win the next season.

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  20. Coutinho's upbringing made a humble hard working loyal man. Sterling is a little brat raised in London I assume.

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  21. I agree with everything. Sterling wouldn't even being starting if we had a few decent attacking players. Liverpool should sell Sterling while he's still hyped up. When he turns 22-23 and is still the same player, people will realize he isn't the golden child he and they thinks. He's just another Aaron Lennon and Shaun Wright-Phillips.

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  22. Hendo (just want a long term contract to stay cause he know headless chicken are cheap every where), Allen (a manhole fan), sterling (a mercenary), Lovren (not a big timer), Lallana (injury prone), Markovic (too predictable with his run n passing) hopefully all will be ship out along with BR.

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  23. Smart BARGAIN Manager only buy from BINS for resell values problem is he's mostly overpaid for it.

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  24. You aren't getting Dybala for less than 40m, and no more serie A players for Liverpool. In fact I'd even take Paco Alcacer from Sevilla, they are a great team with proven strikers, so I'd go for him over Vietto. I say we sign Konoplyanka but not Yarmolenko, that way we can have Ibe and Kono on at the same time, with Ojo as a sub, and we're good.

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  25. While I would prefer us to spend frugally on potential unknowns which would benefit the team, I wonder if accusations of lacking ambition will come with it. Clubs know that we have spending power and as such the prices of their players climb up when we're interested but this does not excuse our recruitment staff for failing to negotiate a more palatable fee. The danger of an expensive player failing to set the world alight brings with it the unfair label of flop. They do not determine their price tags, and is there a cast iron guarantee that price means quality? How then did we beat a Manchester City side much more expensively assembled than our own?

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  26. Is it not ironic that all the transfer problems are English ???

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  27. What constraints? Buy young and develope perhaps? Stop kidding. BR is allowed to pursue players like Sanchez, Costa, mrhkitayan, falcao et al.. He was unable to sign those players wasn't the fault of FSG and lallana is 26 when he signed

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  28. It's heartening to see there are players out
    there like Coutinho (and Sturridge), who genuinely love Liverpool, and
    prioritise playing for the club over personal gain.



    What you say about Coutinho is 100% correct,

    As far as Sturridge is concerned , I think he is extremly lucky as Im not that sure as to How many club would be signing new contract at 150p/w with his injury record ?

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  29. He actually was indeed, why we didn't win the league ? Let me not mention world class manager, a Tony Pius in charge (starting from Chelsea game would have won us the league comfortably )

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  30. How do you know what options FSG have explored? It is not a fact that there are no better options than Rodgers.

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  31. I agree with the comments about Sterling being overrated and works better as a support player in the attack. There are more rounded players out there with a better attitude and Coutinho stands as a great example. Yet the truth of Sterling's situation is that it does not seem to be about just greed. That's an easy out. He says that the motivation is to win things. This does not mean he has a good attitude in this case either but he knows he's a talented young football player, he's ambitious and it seems he thinks Liverpool are not going to break into the elite where we are challenging for titles etc each year. This happened with Torres and happens with top transfer targets. And until we win the league and challenge consistently it will happen again. Do you want a player like that in the team? Maybe not. He is clearly thinking about himself and his career but the article stating knowledge of greed as the only motivation is unfounded and I think doesn't address the situation that Liverpool are still in, that is on the fringes of success not in the leading pack. It happened with Houllier, when we needed to push on from a successful season and he hummed and harred about expensive wingers from Blackburn, it happened with Rafa when we came second in the league and now with Rogers. Last year we should have done everything to sign and world class player, CL, second in the league..... everything moving forward..... and we fluffed our lines.

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  32. I have given Coutinho stick for his shooting and inconsistency in the past, and probably still will... But I applaude the attitude.

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  33. Every working man is entited to a payrise inline with inflation....don't be so stingy

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  34. Before he's flogged we should put him in the stocks.

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  35. Apologies MOD.

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  36. How many trophies has Jose won? How many trophies has Brendan won? There was a debate on Talksport about entertaining football v Chelsea style of play. I'd take 38 1-0 wins every season.

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  37. Because BR bought the players in who haven't delivered! So it's a combination of everyone.
    But BR sets out the tactics, the players he picks, the information he gives them, the details. It's small details. He sees the bigger picture and will say that he is building for a future.. But We have been building for a future for 20 years.
    I guarantee you Luke Shaw would have been a better fit than Alberto Moreno, he scored that one goal against Spurs and everyone thinks he is great. But everytime he gets attacked he turns his back on the ball and is so out of position its untrue.
    We had a perfectly good goalkeeper in Pepe Reina. How many clean sheet awards did he win? 3?4?

    Aston Villa have a shocking season, they sack their manager, bring in Sherwood who has galvanised their squad. We could have done that in November (bring in a new man, not Sherwood!) and who knows what might have happened.
    I think FSG will be scared to get rid of Rodgers because they know a new manager will demand transfer funds that they aren't prepared to give, whilst we are out of the Champions League.

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  38. Give him another year with his selection of player, and ask him to deliver a silverware for us or fired.........

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  39. Nice reply islesfan/LFCnyc.....awesome summary

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