Liverpool: Contractual Woes

After a promising  second place finish last year, Liverpool have dropped back out of the top 4. To be fair to them, they did put up a good fight up until  the end of March after which it began to fall apart. Tactically outplayed by Manchester United at Anfield and a moment of madness by one their greatest ever players triggered an unexpected decline towards the end of the season. A dissapointing trip to Wembley and an extremely anti-climatic farewell for Steven Gerrard were just some of the reasons why this has been a season to forget for the Liverpool faithful. Now they stand a chance to lose one of their best players in Raheem Sterling to a direct Premier League rival. It is perfectly understandable why Liverpool fans are aggreived. Sterling and his agent have handled the situation very poorly but is there some blame to be put on Liverpool FC and how they have handled contracts in the past ?

Liverpool’s contract management first came under criticism when Steven Gerrard stated that he would have stayed at Liverpool if he had been offered a contract earlier. It might be a blunder on Stevie G’s part to have made this statement as it publicly raised questions about the backroom staff at the club.

Since then, Liverpool have made questionable contract decisions regarding Sterling and Skrtel, both of whom have openly criticized how Liverpool FC have handled their contracts. 3 prominent players have directly or indirectly criticized the Liverpool management on how their respective contracts have been dealt with. With rumours floating around about James Milner earning £150000 a week at Liverpool, one can’t help but wonder how Raheem Sterling, Martin Skrtel and their respective agents are reacting to such news. Milner is a good player no doubt, but he isn’t a marquee signing. There has been a lot of media scrutiny on Liverpool’s transfer policy but even if the transfer policy changes and Liverpool decide to invest in established talent, it is vital that they address how their existing players are treated. This isn’t to point out that these players have been treated badly, but Liverpool FC is certainly not in a position to let their best players leave, a view reinforced by the transfer of Luis Suarez to Barcelona. With Brendan Rodgers set to stay at the club, it is going to be interesting to see the changes made to the Liverpool squad by the end of the transfer window.