The Public Shaming of Raheem Sterling

After an incident at St Georges Park, where England players were assembling for International duty, the England Manager has taken the unusual step of issuing a public statement to announce Raheem Sterling has been dropped.

The fact that Raheem Sterling is England’s best player has been decried often in the media by many for a number of years. Buoyed by the booing propogated following his acrimonius split from Liverpool FC back in 2015 and supported by racists masquerading as fans, the media have played a loud part in the villification of Raheem into a pantomime villain.

There was some careful redemption of Sterling though in the media last year, following his starting of debates about the portrayal of race and he emerged as an important cultural voice of our times.

The problem though is it never really felt that the media’s new found modelling of Sterling was really heartfelt. Instead it always felt as though we were only one sausage roll from Greggs away from another negative media spin.

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Accordingly it should be no surprise that the press have reacted in the way they have to the story breaking yesterday of a small physical confrontation between Sterling and Liverpool player Joe Gomez.

Although the media have reported the salacious detail of the incident with glee and they have  been relatively careful in their use of language, nevertheless the implication is clear – Sterling is a bad apple.

Quite why the England camp have decided to publicly shame Sterling is a matter of some concern, as is the role of the Liverpool players – not just in the incident, but of clearly briefing the press. This is obvious from the fact that the Liverpool embedded reporters have carried the story as it broke.

From where I stand, the decision to publicly shame Sterling and in effect to throw him to the vultures in the media, despite everything which has gone on before is very telling indeed. I know, that my personal reaction if I was Sterling would be to walk from England duty and not return, but he is a better man than me, as he has proved a number of times already.

This whole sorry saga starts in the Manchester City defeat on Sunday, where a variety of over aggressive Liverpool challenges went unpunished by the poor refereeing of Michael Oliver. Kyle Walker and Sterling were both pushed at speed into the advertising hoardings and Sterling in particular was singled out for some rough treatment. There was no protection from the referee.

Towards the end of the game, Joe Gomez pointlessly pushed Sterling and he reacted.

This incident has now reportedly spilled over into England duty. Where it would appear Sterling has reacted to Gomez again and grabbed him, and the incident was broken up by other players.

As Sterling himself said on Instagram, the incident lasted 5-10 seconds and should not have happened. Sterling apologised and the matter was dealt with but then the England Manager chose to issue a public statement confirming in effect that Sterling was to be dropped for the next game.

It is not clear if the England Manager’s statement was made because the story had already been broken by Liverpool players to friendly media, or if it was some half assed attempt to make him look powerful.

Either way, it is damaging because this is a simple matter which will happen in any squad from time to time, but usually these issues are dealt with in private.

Public shaming is a strange strategy to follow here as it would tarnish any trust Sterling has for his manager and team mates. The suggestion that the whole squad was in agreement would appear disingenious given some of the noises emanating from the England camp today.

Quite why the England Manager and the FA have chosen to shame Sterling rather than support the players is curious and will fan the media furore which is growing.

Personally I hope Sterling walks out on England and comes back to Manchester for some well earned rest and uses the time to set the Premier League on fire once again for Manchester City.

The real shame here is on those who have chosen to bring this story into the public domain, not Raheem Sterling, who has simply shown the passion that we as fans look for in all of our heroes.