Raheem Sterling was made fully aware of Liverpool supporters’ desire to see him remain on Merseyside when once shouted “Make sure we see you in it next season,” during launch of club’s new home kit for the 2015-16 season on Friday.
Sterling, who was at the Anfield launch with team-mates Simon Mignolet, Martin Skrtel, and Daniel Sturridge, has been in a contract standoff with the club for the majority of the season having rejected a new £100,000-a-week deal. He has postponed all talk over an extension until the end of the season and did an interview with the BBC last week to insist money is not the motivating factor behind his decision.
However, the 20-year-old’s failure to put pen to paper on a contract has caused unrest among Liverpool fans, as seen by the reaction of one of the 1,000 invited to Friday’s event. The interruption was followed by cheers from the rest of the audience.
Afterwards Sturridge made clear his desire to see Sterling remain at Anfield. The striker said: “I don’t know what Raheem wants to do but it is just important to be able to play regularly. “As long as he is playing regularly he will be happy – I don’t think it is anything to with anything other than that and I hope he will stay at the club.
“It is important, regardless of who you are, to show what you can do - not just for Raheem but any young player. It is important to play games and gain experience so whatever decision he makes I am behind him 100 per cent.”
Speaking about the new kit, Jordan Henderson, Liverpool’s vice-captain, said: “The kit feels great and I’m pleased the New Balance team considered what the players need from a kit when it was designed. The material is very comfortable and the players are delighted with the result.”
Billy Hogan, Liverpool’s chief commercial officer, said: “We are very excited to be launching our first kit in partnership with New Balance, which is one of the world’s leading sportswear brands. Like LFC, New Balance has over 100 years of heritage and it’s fitting that the first kit launched as part of this record-breaking partnership celebrates the club’s illustrious history and worldwide fanbase.”
