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That did not feel the case though when Raheem Sterling was sold to Manchester City for close to £50m in the summer of 2015.

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Only a year before he had been at the forefront of a swashbuckling Reds side which defied expectations and thrilled Liverpudlians and neutrals alike when coming heartbreakingly close to ending the club's then quarter-of-a-century wait for a 19th league championship.

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The devastation which ensued from Steven Gerrard's slip against Chelsea and the subsequent failure to gain the seven points required from the final nine available that would have confirmed the title cast an almighty shadow over Anfield for quite some time afterwards and only really began to dissipate once Jurgen Klopp arrived.



Having been born in Jamaica, his family had moved to the UK when he was seven and by the time the Reds swooped to bring him north, he had already been featuring regularly for QPR's under-18 team as well as the Hoops reserves.

A year after his arrival on Merseyside, a stunning performance in an FA Youth Cup tie when he scored five times in a 9-0 win against Southend United brought him to the attention of Reds fans who at the time were in need of a ray of light after one of the most harrowing seasons in Anfield history.

By February 2011, the trauma of seeing Tom Hicks and George Gillett in the boardroom along with Roy Hodgson in the dug-out had been finally ended but only fairly recently and, with Manchester United looking a good bet to finally surpass Liverpool's total of 18 league championships at the end of the season (which they did), any signs of hope for the future were seized upon with relish and even a touch of desperation.

Only the previous week, newly-installed caretaker manager Kenny Dalglish had said he would have no hesitation about using some of the club’s brightest stars in the first team that season if needed and he handed squad numbers to the likes of Sterling, Suso and youth-team captain Conor Coady.

The Anfield icon was in attendance for the cup tie against the Shrimpers and could not have failed to be impressed by Sterling's showing, with the ECHO reporting afterwards: "It was the dazzling efforts of the Jamaican-born Sterling, wearing the famous number seven jersey, that caught the eye of all those at Anfield.

Sterling has similar qualities to the young Owen, with pace, quick feet and cool finishing."

The youngster's five-goal salvo won him a place in the first-team squad for the Europa League trip to Sparta Prague and, while he didn't make the bench, a little over 12 months later he was handed a debut as a late substitute in the Premier League clash against Wigan Athletic at Anfield, which took place on this day in March 2012, 13 years ago, before making two more appearances from the bench against Fulham and Chelsea before the end of that campaign.

That summer saw significant change at the club with Dalglish replaced as manager by 39-year-old Rodgers and the Northern Irishman proved as good as his introductory pledge to give young players a chance by handing Sterling his full league debut in only the second game of the season against newly-crowned champions Manchester City.

We want to nurture him and make sure he is around for many years, not just a few months."

A first senior goal, the winner in a 1-0 Premier League victory over Reading at Anfield, followed a month later and by November he had become the fifth youngest England player of all time when making his debut for the national side against Sweden in Stockholm.

Liverpool recognised Sterling's progress by signing him to a new, five-term contract in December 2012 to put the seal on a real breakthrough year just after his 18th birthday.

But the harsh reality is those goals dried up just at the point in the season when Liverpool needed them most.

After scoring his 29th goal of the campaign in the 4-0 win at home to Tottenham on 30 March, which put the Reds top with seven games to go, Suarez managed only two more before the end of the campaign - one in the 3-2 win at Norwich on April 20 and the other in the infamous 3-3 draw at Crystal Palace on 5 May.

Sturridge meanwhile, having bagged his 23rd of the campaign with a curling strike against Sunderland on March 26, did not score again until the final game of the season against Newcastle United at Anfield by which time the title hopes were all but gone.

It's impossible to be too critical of two outstanding talents who brought Liverpool supporters so much enjoyment that season but, as that crucial month of April wore on, it was Sterling who was proving himself to be as important to the team's chances of glory as anyone.

His remarkable progress was acknowledged with a nomination for the PFA Young Player of the Year award ultimately won by Chelsea's Eden Hazard, and by the England national team for whom he started the first two groups in Hodgson's side's ill-fated trip to Brazil for the 2014 World Cup.

Yet by the time he scored Liverpool's first goal of the new season in a 2-1 home win over Southampton, the club had taken no steps to reward his startling progress over the last year with the player still on the reported £35,000 a week contract he had signed in late 2012.

After notching as well in a 3-0 win at Spurs, Sterling scored his third league of the season in only the fifth game of the campaign away at West Ham United, but it was not enough to prevent a 3-1 defeat, already the Reds' third Premier League loss, and it was becoming clear a season of struggle and toil may well be on the cards.

I just want to be seen as a kid who loves to play football and to do the best for the team."

Interestingly Sterling also claimed he would have signed a deal for less than the £100,000 now on the table had it been offered the previous year when Liverpool were pushing for the title.

"If, at that point in time, I was offered a contract, I most definitely would have signed straight away, probably for far less money than being said now," he said.

"I just think the timing was a bit off.
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