PREMIER LEAGUE - ENGLAND

    

Raheem Sterling to start at Arsenal but Rodgers fears Liverpool talent drain

Sterling this week said he was ‘flattered’ to be linked with Gunners
• Challenges for Reds far greater than 20 years ago, says Brendan Rodgers
• Sterling offers Liverpool different challenge to Luis Suárez saga

Raheem Sterling will start Liverpool’s crucial Premier League test at Arsenal on Saturday amid a warning from Brendan Rodgers that the Anfield club faces a huge challenge to retain its finest talent.

The Liverpool manager confirmed Sterling will retain his place against Arsène Wenger’s side despite the 20-year-old admitting on Wednesday he was flattered to be linked with a move to the Emirates Stadium.

Sterling, who may return to a more advanced role for a game with major implications for Liverpool’s Champions League prospects, has refused to commit his future to Liverpool through a £100,000-a-week contract or during a 27-minute interview with the BBC this week. Rodgers, however, will have no hesitation in selecting the England forward against a team who may bid for him this summer.

“Raheem will play,” said the Liverpool manager, who expects Daniel Sturridge to have recovered from the hip injury that ruled him out of England duty last week. “And I expect him to react very strongly. He is a strong character. He’s a young boy, still learning on and off the field, but I don’t think there was anything derogatory to Liverpool from him [in the interview].

“I know he loves being here, loves the club and I expect him to perform at a high level. If it was a different player I maybe would have something to think about. But this kid has been phenomenal since he has come in and I expect him to go there and perform at a high level for the club.”

Rodgers has stated Sterling will not be sold this summer, with the player under contract until 2017 and Liverpool’s owner, Fenway Sports Group, prepared to take the same hardline stance that prevented Luis Suárez leaving for Arsenal in 2013. However, having lost Suárez to Barcelona last summer and seen a young player with potential question Liverpool’s pay offer plus their ability to win trophies, the manager is fearful of a talent drain at Anfield.

“The challenges Liverpool face now are far greater than they were 20 years ago. The challenges are huge,” Rodgers said. “It does not affect the status of the club – it is still an incredibly huge club around the world – but the modern player is different. It is a different feeling, you want to be successful, but for a young player there is no greater place to develop.

“We want that youthfulness – we do not just want it for another team to come and take it. My focus is to keep this group together and add to it and compete for trophies. Otherwise you just have to keep rebuilding or restocking your squad.”

Rodgers wants to add established talent this summer, when Steven Gerrard will depart for LA Galaxy, but admits he requires patience from the current crop for FSG’s strategy to come to fruition. The average age of Liverpool’s starting lineup was 24.2 for their last Premier League match, which ended in a damaging 2-1 home defeat by Manchester United.

The Liverpool manager added: “It is the model of the club. Whether I like it or not, it is how the model is set up. I do the best with the players available. Yes, I think the most successful teams will average 28-29 years of age and ours will be below that. You will see that in the United game, where a lack of experience shows. That is why they are here – to learn – and when it is like that it will go that way sometimes.”

Chelsea plan post-season tour if they are Premier League champions

José Mourinho says Japan likely destination due to Yokohama Rubber deal 
• Week-long tour will alarm countries facing Euro 2016 qualifiers in June 
• Chelsea seal £200m shirt sponsorship deal with Yokohama Rubber 
• Costa may start on Chelsea bench against Stoke, says Mourinho 

If Chelsea win their first Premier League title in five years, they may celebrate it with a post-season tour, possibly to Japan, which will potentially alarm those national federations who have players at the London club and are due to participate in key Euro 2016 qualifiers in June.

José Mourinho revealed that the league leaders, who can extend their advantage at the top of the division with victory over Stoke City on Saturday, are in early talks over a possible week-long trip which would take place after the final home game against Sunderland on 24 May. No destination has been set for the trip, which would involve two friendlies, though the manager suggested the club’s new £40m-a-season shirt sponsorship deal with Yokohama Rubber made Japan, a 12,000-mile round trip, a likely venue.

Fifa regulations stipulate players must be made available to prepare 14 days before an international tournament, which suggests Ramires, Oscar, Willian and Juan Cuadrado would not be available given their anticipated involvement at the Copa América, which starts on 11 June in Chile, with Brazil and Colombia respectively. However, Chelsea’s Belgian, Serbian, English and Spanish contingent – who face away qualifiers on 12-14 June – would all be able to take part and return in time to link up with their respective international sides before friendlies and qualifiers.

Although the club is well within its rights to take its employees on the tour, national sides are unlikely to greet the news with great enthusiasm at the end of a long domestic season and with competitive fixtures still to come in mid-June. Principal among them will be the Spanish Football Federation, which was denied Diego Costa over the recent international window because of a hamstring injurywhich has dogged him all season. The forward, who may start on the bench against Stoke, was also unavailable for Spain’s fixtures in November with a similar problem.

“If we win the title, I think we’ll go on an after-season tour, play a couple of matches in some destination where people will be very enthusiastic to have the Premier League champions,” said Mourinho. “It’s something we are thinking about, a good way to celebrate. Not a victory parade but a trip, a week where we play a couple of matches but, at the same time, can be together without the pressure of winning every match, without the pressure and tension of the last weeks of the Premier League.

“We can also relax and go to holidays with that good feeling. But we still have nine matches to play. [The chairman] Bruce Buck and the board are talking with me about destinations. We want to go somewhere where people are enthusiastic to have a club like Chelsea.”

Asked whether Japan would be the likeliest destination given the new association with Yokohama Rubber, particularly as the club’s pre-season tour will be to the United States, Mourinho said: “I don’t know but that would make some sense.”

Scans on Wednesday confirmed Costa has recovered from the hamstring strain sustained in Chelsea’s 3-2 win at Hull just before the international window but he may not be risked from the start against Stoke. “At this moment the muscle is fine,” said Mourinho. “But football is more than that: you need confidence, to believe that you don’t need to break your intensity and are free to express yourself at the maximum intensity, and that’s our doubt. We’ll see the next 24 hours. But selected [in the squad]? That’s for sure.”