Jeff Stelling took his chance on TalkSport today to criticise the Chelea fans who booed Raheem Sterling yesterday.
He couldn’t believe how a set of fans could be so counterproductive. He’s probably right, although we’d challenge him to sit through the last two years of being a Chelsea fan in the stadium and not crack at some point.
Certainly plenty of fans would have a big objection to the idea that Sterling “never stops trying.” There have been some occasions this season where his effort has been sorely lacking – but that goes for the rest of the squad too, to be fair.
You can see him make his point in the clip embedded here:
Jeff is delusional, you only have to watch sterling to see he never gives 100%, watch how he suddenly up’t his game after missing the pen. Jeff seems to forget sterlings experience, age etc he provides very little up front, let’s face it the opportunity are never too worried about him bar a through ball, never makes forward runs, struggles to take on players despite his pace, never challenges/ applies pressure to a fullback, this guy is stealing a living. It ain’t cheap going to games and the least this guy can do is give it 100%,.
I agree that I don’t see Sterling always looking like he’s “locked in.” And that’s just inexcusable given his vast experience. In a squad this young we desperately need Sterling, as an elder statesman, to lead by example and he simply doesn’t. For me, he’s always had an inconsistent streak to his game—one minute he’s brilliant and the next he looks like a passenger. And so I wasn’t entirely thrilled when we acquired him for such a hefty price tag. But given all of this, it seems to me the least he could do is STOP TRYING TO BE “THE MAN.” Given his failure to be a leader on this team he really had no right to take that penalty from Palmer on Sunday, or, later after he’d missed the penalty and blew a 1v1 with the keeper, to take another free kick from Palmer and blaze a shot into the second deck! Bottom line: If Sterling doesn’t have it in him to lead by example, then he should be making way in important moments and helping the young rising stars (like Palmer) to shine.
All of that said, I have no patience for the fans booing Sterling or harassing him online. It’s never been, and never will be, productive to treat your own players this way.