Raheem Sterling’s agent Aidy Ward dropped a bombshell on Thursday morning – calling Jamie Carragher a knob, and saying his client wouldn’t renew his Liverpool stay even if offered £900,000 per week.
What’s more, most of the UK press have linked Sterling to a move to Manchester United – and Liverpool fans would be loathe to see their team join their arch rivals.
On a dark day for Liverpool, it brought to mind the slew of controversial transfers that have gone down through the years.
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Though very few players’ representatives have been alleged to label a club legend a ‘knob’, the level of animosity that will surround Raheem Sterling’s likely departure from Liverpool will be high and pointed.
However, there have been worse moves. Transfers that were so acrimonious that they still leave a bitter taste in the mouths of spurned supporters. Sterling is lucky that he has only been at Anfield for a short time, but if the tales of the players in the list below are anything to go by then he can be sure that he won’t be on anybody’s Christmas card list for a long time.
Luis Figo – Barcelona to Real Madrid, 2000
The most famous display of fan anger at a player’s transfer came in 2000 when Luis Figo left Barcelona to join arch rivals Real Madrid in a deal worth £38m. His arrival in the capital sparked the Galactico era, but his first return to the Nou Camp for El Clasico (which is volatile at the best of times) made it clear to him how much he’d hurt his former fans. Every time he want over to take a corner he was pelted with debris from the stands, and at one point a pig’s head even made its way onto the pitch.
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