Of course, Sterling is in the wrong too. But you have to acknowledge that they are both essentially bellends, goading someone in a setting where you know he can't react is pretty cowardly. Give over with the dramatic language as well, you'd swear Sterling went at him with a prison shank.
Raheem Sterling vs Joe Gomez
- Thread starter roonster09
- Start date
There was me thinking it's part of a defenders job to stop attackers getting to the ball, or are you talking about:
Sterling actually gives Gomez a shove first in the clip shown early on in this thread.
The pitch is the home for the dark arts - some of the best players to play the game have operated with underhand tactics. It's pretty important and the best teams are usually very good at it. I'd say a criticism of Klopp's teams before this season was a lack of overt cynicism in terms of goading and rattling opponents. That's definitely changed this season and I thought Liverpool players played Sterling like a fiddle. Absolutely within the laws and should be encouraged from a fan's perspective.
However, you obviously leave it on the pitch. Gomez did if you believe the accounts emerging from the England camp; Sterling didn't.
Well that's where we disagree. If you are a dickhead on the pitch, where you know there will be no repercussions, you should expect that sometimes people are going to react next time they see you. I can't say I would ever encourage Utd players to act like Busquets, for example. Those sort of players remind me of those little rats from the schoolyard that would wind people up and then get them in trouble when they reacted. What Sterling did was wrong, but it's also human nature, and acting like Gomez is a completely innocent party in all of this is a bit naive.
Ok, but acting like some United greats were choir boys is a bit naïve. You may not be arguing this, but from SAF down, his team were the biggest sh*thouses going and good luck to them. Crowding the ref, intimidating opponents, goading rival fans...they had the lot.
It's part and parcel of the game. Of course it is and it should be. Gomez is no more guilty of it than anybody else.
Yes it looked like someone may have leaked it. But Southgate didn't need to confirm it. He could have dealt with it privately, said Sterling was being rested as a precaution for the Kosovo game and if anyone asked about a supposed incident, just say nothing happened and move on. From listening to ex players (not just around this incident but whenever they have spoken about their own careers and so on) this sort of stuff goes on all the time.
Sterling admitted he was in the wrong, apologized and then the whole squad and management should have moved on. Storm in a teacup for me and didn't need to be made public.
Sterling’s reaction was understandable but unprofessional. Football pitch or not as Sterling can be lip read saying, “don’t f***ing touch me”.
Gomez isn’t a bystander here.
Those of you who suggests what Gomez is in the wrong because he and Sterling are teammates on England, should watch Barcelona v Real Madrid. Sergio Ramos will attempt to murder anyone not in a white jersey. You are not teammates, until you are.
They had a minor scuffle in a football game, big whoop. It was a nothing situation that should have ended then and there. Sterling is ENTIRELY to blame for making it physical afterwards.
England fans booing Gomez are entirely braindead. Disgusting behavior.
They had a minor scuffle in a football game, big whoop. It was a nothing situation that should have ended then and there. Sterling is ENTIRELY to blame for making it physical afterwards.
England fans booing Gomez are entirely braindead. Disgusting behavior.
Well he should probably not go around touching people first then eh?
Sterling himself has admitted he was fully at for for this whole thing, why are people still blaming Gomez?
the guys who talk about it tend to be pundits and with all respect to them, there’s a whole different level of access now. The incident Roy Keane referenced between himself and Schmeichel, which happened at least 20 years ago now, just think the amount of things that didn’t exist then that play a huge part in the modern game. Plausible deniability isn’t really possible anymore, so as much as I’m sure things like this happened a lot for the players of the last generation, nowadays it’s pretty much certainly going to be made public.
I've just read the last couple of pages of this thread and I have to say..my God. You're literally criticizing a player for being brave! Seems a weird thing to want from someone representing the country. You suggest that a professional player should show deference to an opponent, which if nothing else illustrates your lack of understanding.
Not only that, you view "bravery" as seeing yourself as equal to someone else! God forbid any of us should ever challenge anyone above us in your god-forsaken social "hierarchy".
Way to stick up for The System and The Man, big fella. I'm proud of you.
Not impressed with your comprehension skills.
This is all Southgate's doing. He made a meal of out of a fairly insignificant issue, to make it look like he actually has something to do as England manager.
Joe being 'devastated' will go down well with the snowflake-shouting mob...
Yes, Southgate is to blame for all this, and not Sterling 
Nice try but I quoted you directly. Your meaning was clear.
But please go for it. Tell me how you didn't mean to say exactly what you said.
Mate, your interpretation is wrong.
First, I didn't mean, of course, that Gomez was brave to challenge Sterling on a personal level, that was a bit sarcastic. What I meant was that if you are being a bit nasty with a team-mate who has a completely different status in the hierarchy of the team, it's only natural to expect a similar reaction from him, including off the pitch. If he thought that he would get away with being a bit of a dickhead on the pitch and everything would be normal on the next day, then he was daft. Which he probably was.
Second, Sterling did something nasty too by retaliating.
Third, hierarchy is not something necessarily oppressive and thus bad. Most social environments, including sport teams, function better when there is some hierarchy and the individuals acknowledge it. Not every act of challenging the hierarchy is something good. It might be extremist, imbecile, etc. Gomez could have been tough, brave, professional, etc.. without being a dickhead with a team-mate who is his senior and much more successful. What happened off the pitch wasn't good, of course, but was natural, as many top footballers said, e.g. Rio.
So, while Southgate was right that Gomez didn't respond during the altercation, he should teach his players that if they are being nasty with each other when playing for their clubs, then the atmosphere in national team might suffer seriously.
Senior player take full blame after youngster is targeted by fans shocker. Sterling was withdrew from selection and cast by the FA as the villain, last thing he's going to do is come out an say, that cheeky young lad tried it but was put in his place and we've made up so everybody leave off.Well he should probably not go around touching people first then eh?
Sterling himself has admitted he was fully at for for this whole thing, why are people still blaming Gomez?
What am i blaming Gomez for? Pushing Sterling around on the pitch and almost getting a slap when he saw him a day later - why this offends people is honestly beyond me as it's the truth!
Who touched who first is irrelevant, I saw the incident on Sunday and thought Gomez provoked it but I may be wrong. Again, Gomez was a participant in a heated exchange - he let it go, the person he tussled with did not but yes Sterling was wholeheartedly to blame for Gomez's actions
This thread is actually absurd.
Yep it’s worse than the papers. It will keep going long after the headlines stop because Gomez is a Liverpool player. Until the Euros are done or when England crashes out this thread will be alive. It’s done with but alive in here.
Big respect to the fans who showed this guy they won’t accept disrespect to England’s best player. Shame the whole stadium didn’t boo him
Sterling took the blame before the fans booed Gomez, he just had to go back and reiterate it because football fans have a tendency to be absolute muppets quite often.Senior player take full blame after youngster is targeted by fans shocker. Sterling was withdrew from selection and cast by the FA as the villain, last thing he's going to do is come out an say, that cheeky young lad tried it but was put in his place and we've made up so everybody leave off.
What am i blaming Gomez for? Pushing Sterling around on the pitch and almost getting a slap when he saw him a day later - why this offends people is honestly beyond me as it's the truth!
Who touched who first is irrelevant, I saw the incident on Sunday and thought Gomez provoked it but I may be wrong. Again, Gomez was a participant in a heated exchange - he let it go, the person he tussled with did not but yes Sterling was wholeheartedly to blame for Gomez's actions
Put in his place? They were happy with each other after the game, then Gomez was saying hello to everyone on international duty and Sterling went for him. It's an unprovoked attack. Even if you want to say Sterling was just reacting to events from the game, he is the one who started it. Watch the clip, he shoves his arm into Gomez as the whistle is blown, the push from Gomez and everything else comes after that. So yes Sterling is to blame here, Gomez shouldn't really be shoving him back but Sterling provokes the incident.
If people watch that clip and genuinely think Gomez started it then I'm lost for words.
Apparently there's been a bit of needle for a while, maybe a dispute over who has the worst beard.
I think that is fake news. All good beard disputes start on Twitter, and I can find no trail on there.
Yeah but his punchability in the clip is higher than Sterling's so for most people he will be in the wrong
How was going round shaking every player's hand goading Sterling?
It's incidents like this that will probably only help galvanise the already solid bond the players have in the squad. Pretty sure Klopp won't miss the opportunity to remind them of all the ABL's out there, thus giving the lads even greater incentive to shut them up.
Here I am again doing a thing that is overly common on here & being positioned to defend a position I don’t have because you’re looking to argue.
In the post you took offence to, I state Sterling was unprofessional but I found his reaction understandable; that is all.
I don’t care who pushed who first etc. two men had handbags & unlike with most club scuffles they were placed in close proximity hours later & Sterling boiled over.
You’ve just said Gomez “shouldn’t really be shoving him”. All I have said is if you shove someone in one instance then see them again not so long after & they’re still feeling a little aggrieved I can understand why they would be.
Put in his place. They were happy after the game? If Sterling was happy why go for him the next day. Sterling knew he couldn’t do anything on the pitch & attempted to rectify this the next time they saw each other.
In Sterling’s position he can’t make any other statement.
There’s a tendency here to come into a thread & regardless of a posters actual opinions they are seen as either ‘for’ or ‘against’ the topic. I’m neither, I could care less for England games unless it involves performances of the players that play for my club.
All I’m saying is Gomez isn’t a victim here; I haven’t even discussed his share of the blame & have admitted I have only seen the incident a few times.
Thanks for reposting the vid, I’ll watch it after I press post on this but it’s neither here nor there for the argument I’m actually making.
"If you are a dickhead on the pitch, where you know there will be no repercussions, you should expect that sometimes people are going to react next time they see you"
That is the bit you put in bold from the message you replied to saying it was understandable but unprofessional and that Sterling could be seen telling Gomez not to touch him. That is what I responded to, you've not been asked to defend anything. The bit about people blaming Gomez was more of a general point, not specifically aimed just at you. Though if you are saying it's understandable then you are starting to shift blame onto Gomez.
Who pushed who does matter in this context. If you're saying that someone shoving you and then you pushing back after should mean that it's understandable that they should attack you after a decent cooling off period in between then you're starting to suggest Gomez should be avoiding Sterling, rather than trying to say hello to his England team mate.
The story around Sterling attacking him the next days seems to revolve around people making fun of him on social media for the incident in the match. If you're arguing Sterling knew he couldn't have done anything in the game because he would get into trouble then it would be obvious to him that he if he attacked Gomez in front of the whole squad then he'd be getting into trouble. That line of reasoning doesn't make any sense.
Gomez just dropped out of the England squad with an injury, so you would suspect this story is going to linger on for a while yet.
Political? Or actual?
This whole thing is a mess.
You surely kick Sterling out of the whole 2 game squad, or you just deal with it In house! Not this weird middle ground measure.
Gomez should never have been called up anyway. Played less than 100 minutes in the league this season. Hopefully him leaving the squad is the end of this story. Mountain out of a molehill due to the inability to keep it in house.
I don't know if you grew up sheltered or not, but the one thing you cannot do to another player in that situation is pick them up like that. You can push, put your head against theirs etc but you can't pick them up like that.
Well, would you look at that? Who could have foreseen such events?
First he hung Raheem out to dry for no reason, and now Gomez has been booed, publicly humiliated, and has had to be conveniently "rested", all because Southgate went public with the details. He's tried to make himself look like he has control over the camp, like everyone answers to him and only him, when he'd have been much better off saying "This is what happens with young lads in a competitive environment, I'm glad they're showing their passion". Kills the story dead and controls the narrative - any subsequent speculation can be dismissed as such. Instead he's caused all these issues almost single-handedly because he's tried to play the big man in front of the media. Poor man management all round.
Can see people using this against Southgate as justification for hating him until he leaves now. People desperate for a stick to beat with.
Could've been handled better, but I think everyone will learn from it.
Could've been handled better, but I think everyone will learn from it.
Why are people saying it is wrong to have disciplined Sterling? You cannot allow that kind of behaviour in a workplace without repercussions; it will set a bad precedent. Southgate was correct in leaving him out.
Also, why are people determining who was to blame on the football pitch? You don't know what the players have said to each other. That is why you get idiot fans booing Gomez since everyone is a judge nowadays. Nothing serious happened from the looks of it, anyway.
The fact of the matter is Sterling started something in the England camp and he was punished for such behaviour. It is right for him to criticised for it. He even admitted it was his fault.
Also, why are people determining who was to blame on the football pitch? You don't know what the players have said to each other. That is why you get idiot fans booing Gomez since everyone is a judge nowadays. Nothing serious happened from the looks of it, anyway.
The fact of the matter is Sterling started something in the England camp and he was punished for such behaviour. It is right for him to criticised for it. He even admitted it was his fault.
What is it with man city and Liverpool players picking and throwing each other around. Didn't Yaya Toure do worse to Lallana, he tried to suplex him one time if I remember correctly? I would argue that was more humiliating than Gomez sterling one. Never saw Lallana trying to grab Toure by the throat when they bumped into each other at Waitrose afterwards 
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He doesn't really pick him up though. You should not be shoving your head into anyone either, we give footballers way too much leniency when it comes to this sort of stuff. Sterling also starts the whole incident, him them attacking Gomez a day or so later is no okay.
He didn't hang Sterling out to dry and it definitely wasn't for no reason, he attacked Gomez. Gomez being booed is not because of Southgate, it's because of numpty fans. You're putting the blame in the wrong place here.