'Terrific': After £45m offer, Liverpool legend claims 'outstanding' attacker will replace 'Sterling'

The Raheem Sterling transfer saga rumbles on, and unlike many fans (it seems), I'd love to see Liverpool sell The Mercenary to the highest bidder this summer (currently Man City with a £45m offer). The Reds will not miss Sterling in the slightest, and the money from his sale will allow the club to buy one or two attacking players of infinitely superior quality (and end product). That might not even be necessary, though, as LFC legend John Aldridge insists that Sterling's replacement is already at Anfield.

Speaking to the Liverpool Echo on Sunday, Aldo raved:

“Liverpool have a ready-made replacement for Sterling in Jordon Ibe. He’s a terrific player [with] more potential, than Raheem had at that age. He’s a big strong lad, very direct and a better finisher than Raheem".

Ibe being allegedly superior to Sterling is a popular argument these days, but I'm not so sure it's true.

As much as I want Liverpool to dump Sterling ASAP, Ibe has shown very little so far to suggest that he'll develop into a player who'll score/create more goals than The Mercenary.

It shouldn't be hard - Sterling's goals/assist ratio is not the greatest, and last season, he contributed a paltry 7 league goals in 35 apps (11 in 52 overall), which is eminently replaceable.

When it comes to specific, measurable impact, though, Ibe has made little real impact on Liverpool's results since coming into the team, yet he's still overpraised like he's some kind of world-class superstar.

To date, Rodgers has described Ibe as:

* 'Brilliant'.

* 'Wonderful'.

* 'Absolutely sensational'.

* 'Absolutely outstanding'.

Add on fawning praise from the likes of Aldo, Redknapp, Carra, and several other ex-Reds, and you have Sterling MK 2: A decent, developing player who's achieve *nothing* yet is lionised like he's Lionel Messi.



The praise is undeserved, though. Last season, Ibe contributed a miserly one assist and no goals in 17 appearances for Liverpool, and if he's going to replace Sterling, he'll need to improve exponentially next season.

It's all well and good being described as a 'terrific player', and a 'better finished than Sterling', but it all means nothing unless there are concrete results to back up those platitudes.

That said, as a 19-year old, Ibe should not be under pressure to score shedloads of goals/assists for Liverpool, but he will be under pressure due to Rodgers' ridiculous overpraise, which will raise expectations amongst fans, and the media.

If Ibe doesn't live up to the damaging 'outstanding' and 'sensational' labels, he'll be criticised, and that won't do him any good.

On a related note: I never criticised Sterling for his goals/assists when he was breaking through, and I argued the same thing: that he should be left alone to develop, with senior players bearing the responsibility (and pressure) for scoring/creating goals.

That all changed, though, when Sterling started getting too big for his boots. At that point, The Mercenary himself changed expectations, and since then, he's abjectly failed to prove that he's worth £100k+ a week. Hopefully, Ibe won't go down the same path.

Next season, I don't have any real expectations for Ibe. It'll be nice if he grabs a few goals/assists here and there, but the senior, more experienced players (Hendo, Lallana, Coutinho, Milner etc), should bear the bulk of the creative responsibility.

Liverpool should *not* have to reply on Ibe next season, and if that's how things turn out, it'll prove once again that Rodgers has catastrophically failed in the transfer market.

Author: Jaimie K