And so it continues: “head is already there”, “the club doesn’t match my ambitions”, “upset the way the cub has handled it”, but the bids keep on a-coming.
It happens all the time, when a player’s head is turned by another, but what is particularly galling is that here I am not talking about Raheem Sterling, but in fact Dejan Lovren.
And indeed it wasn’t that long ago when Livepool went straight after Lovren, and his club at the time, Southampton, refused to budge … until they eventually gave in. Today it is Liverpool that is in this situation with Manchester City apparently intent on getting one of their players.
Carragher has publicly gone on record with his views, as, too, has Gerrard, and in a nutshell they are of the opinion that Sterling is wrong. There was no mention from them about Lovren’s situation, just that City are evil and Liverpool are everything a player should want to be a part of. It’s all nonsense of course, as to say anything else does not toe the line of the rhetoric spreading throughout the media.
No club (or indeed fan) likes to see one of their best players being poached by a bigger* club, and it is understandable, particularly when said player wants out. City fans would not be happy if Agüero wanted to go to Barcelona and they kept bidding for him time and time again. It has actually happened before when Chelsea came in for SWP with a massive £22m bid; we knew we were helpless from preventing it, but at least in this instance SWP was sad to leave.
It matters not as to whether you personally want, or do not want, Sterling at Manchester City; those in charge seemingly want him and that’s that. Of course any club can submit a bid for anyone they so choose, regardless of how long is left on a player’s contract, and, yes, the other club has every right to turn those bids down, but as a matter of course the player and agent should be informed. This would seem to be the case with Sterling, who evidently responded positively whilst Liverpool, however, did not. And, as said, Southampton did not accept Liverpool’s initial bid of Lovren, but that didn’t stop them returning with an increased offer.
However, Liverpool now have an extremely unhappy player on their books, which can never ever be a good thing, and it would seem that City are unprepared to pay what they are asking for. Now the thinking behind such a large price tag is probably down to several factors: he’s English, a very good prospect for the future, QPR will get 20% of any fee, he has two years left on his contract, and should he wind down that contract he would still command a hefty fee via a tribunal as he would still be under the age of twenty-four. Add all these things together and you come to whatever batsh**t mental price has been placed on his head.
The trouble is only Liverpool think this way, with not even a Soccerex study from the Prime Time Sport of Football agreeing, as they value him at £35.5m, which is, as we are led to believe about what Manchester City initially bid.
It really has become a big mess, and no one is coming out of it looking good … except that is, City. Many (not all) in the media have been lambasting the club for simply putting in a couple of non-insulting bids and then keeping quiet on the matter. Forgive me, but I was under the impression that they are allowed to do this, or have the rules changed when I wasn’t looking?
No, of course they haven’t and this media-bashing is becoming quite tiresome. Save for one or two journalists, I do not believe it’s an agenda against the club, but simply all down to lazy journalism; why bother going against the perception?
Eventually this will all end in one way or the other, and Blues will be hoping that is sooner rather than later, because the longer this continues, the longer it will take City to finish whatever other business they have. This summer is going to be a very long one, I fear.
*Yes, I did say ‘bigger’ – let’s not get into historical bulls**t. Right now, Manchester City are a bigger prospect than Liverpool, as the latter are neither in the Champions League nor will they be pushing for the Premier League title, so just stop it.
Mike Devlin is the author of Manchester City: The Secret History Of A Club That Has No History, which is available in all good bookstores and online.
