Thursday 21 May 2015 22:36, UK
As the saga continues regarding Raheem Sterling's contract at Liverpool, Adam Bate argues that nobody should lose sight of what an extraordinary talent the Reds have on their hands...
The sceptics are out in force and understandably so. Raheem Sterling's claim that he just wants "to be seen as a kid that loves to play football" was an admission that perception is important now. A public relations battle. A phoney war. But with future talks now on hold the relationship between player and club appears to have deteriorated further and Sterling is in the firing line.
Many will feel there is no way back with the greedy young man narrative gathering pace. They'll tell you that Sterling has shown flashes of potential but has managed little more than one good season. John Barnes has joined the list of Liverpool greats pointing out that the youngster has much to prove and even more to learn. Others are on hand to stress that Sterling owes Liverpool a debt of loyalty.
But amid the cacophony of noise surrounding Sterling's contract, the curious attempts to downplay the player's significance ought to be given short shrift. The salary figures mentioned might well be dazzling and when the story features on the main evening news, the public forum is shifted from the Kop to the Co-op, where perspectives on footballers' wages can be rather less sympathetic.
Against this backdrop, the danger is that we lose sight of the vast potential that has inflamed such opinion. As a result, it is worth revisiting some of the statistics that serve to highlight the point that this is not an ordinary talent. Football might be a global game but the list of players showing similar levels of quality to Sterling at the same age remains remarkably short.
Numbers
Consider the numbers. At first glance, Sterling's tally of seven Premier League goals this season might not seem particularly high but he's the only player yet to celebrate his 21st birthday to have found the net more than twice. He's also the only player under the age of 23 to have delivered seven assists or more.
Sterling has created 75 chances from open play. That puts him third behind Eden Hazard and David Silva, but more tellingly the closest player younger than him is Adnan Januzaj with a fifth of that number. Sterling is also one of only four players in the country to complete 100 dribbles this season and there is nobody at the same age that has come up with more than 25 of them.
The versatile 20-year-old topped all of these charts last season too, and while his brief experience in the Champions League earlier this term was not an obvious success, Sterling still ranked among the top dozen dribblers in the group stages. This is not a case of parochialism at play. Scouring Europe will not turn up too many young talents delivering quite as much as Sterling.
Dribbles
For example, there is no player in La Liga aged 21 or under that has completed even half as many dribbles as Sterling this season. Likewise, there is no player in La Liga aged 21 or under that has created half as many chances as Sterling. In each of Europe's five major leagues, the players with more assists are all older than him. As was clear from the very beginning, he is that special.
"I couldn't believe my eyes," said Liverpool youth scout Mark Anderson when describing to Michael Calvin in The Nowhere Men the moment he first saw Sterling in action. "There were some raw edges, but he was the best thing I'd ever seen. I flagged him up immediately, and watched him countless times. He produced something special in every game, showed me everything."
Calvin himself summed up those early days of barely-concealed anticipation well. "The name Raheem Sterling was always spoken in hushed tones at Melwood, Liverpool's training ground, as if reverence would spare its owner the random cruelties of fate." Well, fate is looming large and looking ready to strike the blow to Liverpool instead of the player himself.
As the mood hardens towards the youngster – and the boos he received at the end-of-season awards are likely to just be the start - what nobody should be in any doubt about is that Raheem Sterling is a player of substance. A pure talent. The scouts witnessed it and wondered at it. The analysts have quantified it and mapped out the predictions for its progression.
Liverpool were asked to put a number on what it's worth to them. The problem for them is that the likes of Chelsea and Manchester City are likely to have a far bigger number in mind. And crucially, the player’s representatives will know it. That might be an inconvenient truth for Sterling’s critics. But that won’t stop it being true nevertheless.
