Dubai: Want-away Liverpool winger Raheem Sterling should stay at Anfield until he’s fully developed, according to Reds legend Jamie Carragher.
Sterling has refused to sign a new contract at the club and wants to leave in search of silverware. However, Carragher said the 20-year-old was not yet ready to move on.
“He should stay at Liverpool,” Carragher told an ‘audience with’ at McGettingan’s in JLT on Saturday. “He’s playing for a manager that gives young players a chance, who gave him his chance to flourish.
“If he’s disappointed Liverpool haven’t got into the Champions League next year or aren’t competing for trophies, well Liverpool had their chance in the Champions League and FA Cup this year but Raheem along with the rest of the squad didn’t perform.
“He is playing for a club that competes. Maybe not to the level of Chelsea and Manchester City at the moment, but with [Steven] Gerrard leaving and [Luis] Suarez going the season before, someone needs to take that mantle of being the man who is going to take the club back to where we need to be.
“Sterling, why not grab that mantle and say ‘I’m going to be that man, this team could be built around me, I’m going to be the one who takes Liverpool back to the championship’.”
Carragher, 37, who played 508 games in Liverpool’s defence between 1996 and 2013, added that if Sterling leaves now it may stunt his growth as a player.
“Don’t jump ship,” he added. “Take us back where we want to be and have another 2-3 years of learning and maturing, because he’s still young. Stay at Liverpool another 2-3 years and if he hasn’t got us to where he wants to be by then, go. But go at 23 or 24, go when you are a better player, more mature and will have more chance of getting straight into their first team and playing every week, which is what he’s doing at the moment, rather than go there now and play once every now and again. Because he’s not [David] Silva, [Sergio] Aguero, [Diego] Costa or [Eden] Hazard, he could well be in 3-4 years but make that move when you’re ready. I don’t think he’s quite ready yet.”
