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Raheem Sterling is clearly desperate to leave Liverpool and join Manchester City – but the England winger can’t seem to make up his mind why.

Since contract talks with the Reds broke down in February, Sterling and his agent Aidy Ward have repeatedly changed their tune about their reasons for wanting to turn their back on Anfield.

Here are the best of them......

1) Money

“I don’t want to be perceived as a 20-year-old money-grabber but as the kid that loves to play football,” Sterling told the BBC back in April in an interview which was conducted without the club’s permission.

Yet a few months earlier it had been about money when Liverpool’s contract offer of £100,000 per week was rejected. Sterling’s camp were demanding £150,000 per week to put him on a par with the club’s highest earner, Daniel Sturridge. Liverpool weren’t prepared to go that high so the stalemate continued with Sterling remaining on his £35,000 per week deal, which runs until 2017.

2) Trophies

“I talk about winning trophies throughout my career. That’s all I talk about,” Sterling said.

After telling Liverpool in March that he wanted to put contract talks on hold until after the end of the season, Sterling’s camp were peddling the line that he had to quit Liverpool in order to satisfy his lust for silverware. It was about ambition, not cash, they insisted.

Sterling felt that the sale of Luis Suarez, coupled with the impending departure of captain Steven Gerrard, had severely dented any chances of winning trophies if he stayed at Anfield. He had to get away in search of glory.

3) Being played out of position

“I train every day to play up front,” Sterling said.

He was reacting to reports in the national press that he had become disillusioned by a stint at wing-back in Rodgers’ 3-4-2-1 formation in the second half of last season.

Sterling went on to say he felt he had been “sacrificed to play in a more defensive position as the manager is trying to fit everyone in”.

In truth it was only a short term measure during Jordon Ibe’s injury absence and Lazar Markovic’s downturn in form.

While Sterling prefers playing through the middle and is more affective there, less than 18 months earlier he had been viewed as an out and out winger so the occasional shift on the flanks shouldn’t have been too much of a hardship. A mountain was made out of a molehill.

4) Champions League football

Once it became clear that Liverpool’s top-four hopes were over, reports surfaced that Sterling felt he had to join a club who could offer him Champions League football.

Apparently, he had to be playing in the Champions League and rubbing shoulders with Europe’s elite otherwise his form for England would suffer. He was ready to embark on a selfless act for his country.

This argument conveniently overlooked the fact that no 20-year-old has a divine right to play at that level and the fact that Sterling had played in the competition for Liverpool in 2014/15 and like his team-mates had failed to impress.

5) The club have failed to protect me so the fans have turned on me

One of the most ridiculous suggestions from his agent was that Liverpool had “not done enough to protect the player from negative headlines” and had conducted a PR campaign against him.

They stood accused of leaking out confidential details about contract talks – suggestions that Liverpool have always vehemently denied.

On the back of confirmation that he had snubbed a five-year deal worth £100,000 per week, Sterling took plenty of stick from the home fans during a lacklustre performance against Manchester United at Anfield in March.

He was then booed and heckled at the Reds’ kit launch and the end of season awards night.

Rodgers left him out of the final game of the season but when Stoke fans chanted ‘there’s only one greedy *******’, the travelling Kop clapped in agreement. His phone number has since been published online – leading to him being bombarded with a succession of abusive messages.

Sterling’s camp have argued that the player’s position at the club is untenable so Liverpool have to sell.

6) Brendan Rodgers

Having seen Liverpool already reject two bids and Manchester City seemingly reluctant to match the £50million asking price, Sterling’s camp have clearly got itchy feet.

First, they upped the ante this week by telling Liverpool that Sterling doesn’t want to go on the tour of the Far East and Australia, and then the player phoned in sick for training.

Now Ward has claimed that Rodgers is the real reason why Sterling has to leave the Reds for Man City.

“There has been a breakdown in trust between him and Brendan Rodgers,” claimed Ward.

Sterling’s camp claim that Rodgers has continually broken promises to keep conversations private. They also insist Sterling would have stayed at Anfield if Rodgers had been sacked at the end of last season.

Laughably, Rodgers has also been accused of standing too close to Sterling during training sessions just so that photographers would get shots of them together.

Rodgers has been left baffled by all that criticism considering he has carefully nurtured Sterling’s career over the past three years and gone out of his way to protect him.

The Northern Irishman inherited a teenager with raw talent and has helped Sterling take the first steps towards fulfilling his potential. All that support has been thrown back in his face.