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Originally posted by Cavey
Still no robbo to tell us all the players that Arsenal are going to buy

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Originally posted by DC90
Are you expecting Carlo, Rick?

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Football's most controversial transfer saga exploded into acrimony today as England star Raheem Sterling’s agent launched an extraordinary attack on Liverpool and the club’s former players.

The Premier League striker’s representative, Aidy Ward, said Londoner Sterling would refuse to sign a new deal even if he was offered nearly £1 million a week and may well return to the capital to play for Chelsea.

20-year-old Sterling, one of English football’s brightest young prospects, has already turned down a £100,000-a-week deal and is set to have a crunch meeting with manager Brendan Rodgers and Liverpool chief executive Ian Ayre tomorrow.

The protracted and bitter negotiations have reignited the debate about the effect of big money deals on young football players and former Liverpool stars and pundits have queued up to attack Sterling and his advisers.

But hitting back today, Ward told the Standard he “didn’t care” about the club or its image, dismissed criticism by former players as “irrelevant” and branded Liverpool legend and Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher “a knob”.

He said: “I don’t care about the PR of the club and the club situation. I don’t care.

“He is definitely not signing. He’s not signing for £700, £800, £900 thousand a week. He is not signing.

“My job is to make sure I do the best with them (my clients). If people say I am bad at my job, or they are badly advised it does not matter.”

Sterling’s relationship with the Liverpool has deteriorated since giving an unauthorised interview to the BBC in which he insisted he was not a “money-grabber”.

Many have blamed his agent Aidy Ward for allegedly giving him “terrible advice” over the handling of contract negotiations and for orchestrating the interview as leverage.

Sterling, who was booed as he collected the club’s Young Player of the Year award this week, is rapidly falling out of favour with Liverpool fans, with one apparently kicking his car as he drove away from Liverpool’s training ground yesterday.

But in an extraordinary attack on one of the club’s most respected former players, Ward said: “Carragher is a knob. Everybody knows it. Any of the criticism from current pundits or ex-Liverpool players - none of them things matter to me. It is not relevant.”

He said their criticism would be the same if Sterling stayed and then left in two years’ time when his contract expires, the only difference being the club would receive less money in transfer fees.

And he also appeared to blame the club for making news about the discussions public, saying: “How did this all occur? There is no smoke without fire.”

Ward said Sterling would not move to Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern Munich, and suggested Chelsea or Manchester City were the most likely destinations.

He added: “I am not worried. Worried is making a decision not knowing what is going to happen. Every premier league club will make a bid for him.”

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