Raheem Sterling would have still been a Liverpool player if not for Brendan Rodgers, according to the winger’s agent Aidy Ward.
The England international left Anfield and completed a £49m switch to Manchester City in the summer transfer window. He decided against signing a new deal and his representative publicly expressed the player’s desire to leave the Merseyside club while he was at Liverpool.
Rodgers was sacked by the Reds board and they replaced the Northern Irishman by appointing former Borussia Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp earlier this month. Ward claims Sterling would have loved to play under the German boss, but admitted the 20-year-old is happy at City.
“I became the bad guy, that’s how I was portrayed. It started from the PR behind Liverpool. There is no issue with the fans there, they don’t know the full story, and there are lots of good people at Liverpool,” Ward told The Daily Mail.
“I had no problem with (chief executive) Ian Ayre for example. I have no issue with anyone but Rodgers. He had a massive job with massive funds. How did he do? Good coach, but as a manager I didn’t like certain things about how he dealt with Raheem.
“Fifty per cent of the players would probably tell you Brendan is not a good manager, but he is a good coach.
“The new Liverpool manager probably would have been a great fit for Raheem – passionate, disciplined in the right way, new ideas, not afraid of trying new things,’ said Ward. ‘He’ll do great at Liverpool.
“Would Raheem under Klopp have been a good scenario? Yes, 100 per cent, 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,” Sterling’s agent said.
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