THE RAHEEM STERLING situation has just gotten a bit more interesting. Last week, the Liverpool winger said he was ‘flattered’ by potential interest from Arsenal so his knees probably buckled when he read Zinedine Zidane’s latest quotes.
Zidane is currently the manager of the Real Madrid reserve team but he also has a fair amount of clout at the club and he spoke very positively about Sterling’s ability.
“We know who Raheem Sterling is, and of course we are monitoring him as a player,” Zidane told the Daily Mail.
“There are very few players in the world who can improve the Real Madrid squad, so it is going to make sense we monitor the progress of the best young players in the world. We monitored [Gareth] Bale for over a year, the same with Isco and also [Raphael] Varane. We monitor many of the best young players in Europe, then if we feel they have something to offer Real Madrid we will contact their club and try and make the next step.”
Does that mean anything? Maybe, maybe not. As Zidane said, it makes sense for Real to keep tabs on good players but Liverpool fans still won’t like one of the biggest clubs in the world openly declaring that Sterling is on their radar.
One massive plus about joining Real Madrid would be that the 20-year-old would have a more regular use for this floppy piece of head-wear.
Sterling might even lend it to Zizou, if he asks nicely.
Originally published at 20.00
Even when on the bench he didn’t get game time. The coach doesn’t like or trust him. Saturday once again showed just how wrong O’connor has been all season
O’Connor is just all wrong for Leinster.
He has a very big chance next season with Leinster during the World Cup, midfield won’t be as competitive so he should get a good run of matches.
Mark if Darcy doesn’t make the World Cup squad, he’ll play 12 with t’eo at 13. Then Madigan and sexton will be back so the midfield won’t be as easy to get into as you may think
That pop pass from O’Brien
Battle between him and Madigan for the 12 jersey next season.
It’s always to easy to see who coaches ‘just like/don’t like’. When Gopperth played badly it was ignored whereas when Madigan played mediocre or even if Reid played well decisions went against them.
It creates such a poisonous culture as some players start to feel entitled to spots and others feel it doesn’t matter how well they play they won’t get picked. Cody and Fergusson were masters at disregarding players identities and judging on match performance alone. MOC is such a stink manager.