There's nothing wrong with trying to retain your best players. The way Liverpool are going about it is fucked up though. When you have your daft manager sitting in a presser and telling everyone how the club "absolutely won't let go" of a player for any sum and how everyone should consider it an honour to play for "Liverpjuuul fuutball cloob"... well, it's not a great tactic, is it? Could you ever imagine Wenger doing that when it comes to Arsenal?
That sort of narrative works if you're Real Madrid, or even Chelsea. Liverpool is the club that hasn't won a title for three decades though and looks set to miss out on CL again. It's a bit like telling players they should be fucking glad they're stuck at Spurs. The result is that players with little time left on their deals who don't want to be stuck there forever will just run down their contracts. Because the Liverbird just told them in front of a whole room of journalists that he'll never let them go under any other circumstances.
I dunno, maybe Sterling is a bit daft. But who can blame him for looking out for himself when the only message from the club is: "Sign the deal so we can lock you up and throw away the key"? When the club is tactless, why would you expect the players to act any differently?
