Liverpool forward Raheem Sterling might have signed a new deal with the Merseyside giants had they had a different manager at the helm instead of Brendan Rodgers, according to a BBC journalist.
Sterling has refused to ink a new deal with the Reds worth a £100,000 per week and is expected to ask for a transfer this summer at a meeting set for this Friday.
The Merseyside outfit are keen on keeping the youngster at Anfield beyond the existing two years on his contract, but so far they have been unable to get the 20-year-old to agree to a new deal.
It has been claimed that although the relationship between Rodgers and Sterling appears hunky-dory from the outside, things are frosty between the two, which is playing its part in the England international not signing a new deal with the Anfield-based club.
“The relationship between Raheem Sterling and Brendan Rodgers is on the surface a good one, I am told”, BBC journalist Ben Smith said on BBC Radio 5 Live.
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“But I have also heard a few things from around the club and from various different sources around Liverpool, that suggest that when you actually look beneath that surface it actually isn’t quite as good as it might be.
“It has even been suggested to me that Sterling may have signed a new deal if another manager had been in place and that perhaps hints at problems that we haven't quite got to the bottom of just yet.
“And perhaps suggest that actually this has gone too far.
“Now Liverpool say, as I have said already, that they want to keep him come what may, but when you have got those kind of issues going behind the scenes, issues that we perhaps don’t know the full extent of, this may have gone too far to rescue it.”
Sterling was signed by Rafael Benitez for Liverpool in 2010 and he made his senior club debut in March 2012 against Wigan Athletic.
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