If Liverpool can get anything approaching a decent fee for Daniel Sturridge this summer then you have to think they'll be snapping some hands off. West Ham were most recently linked with an £18 million move for the England striker and while that was speculative at best, it did indicate where Sturridge stands at this moment in time.
In the summer of 2014, while still frustrating at times, he was on his way to becoming one of the best strikers in the world. A year and a half later and he's little more than a running joke to be made fun of every couple of weeks. At the beginning of Sturridge's injury troubles, Liverpool took the softly, softly approach.
He was an asset that needed to be protected. However, that tactic can only last so long and Jurgen Klopp's arrival at Anfield has seen a very definite change in direction from the Liverpool hierarchy. When Klopp suggested that Sturridge needs to understand 'what is pain and what is serious pain', it became clear that the slack which was being afforded to the 26 year old was running out.
Klopp has made it clear that Sturridge won't return to the Liverpool first team until he trains fully for a minimum of ten days. However, it would now appear that Sturridge has taken the challenge that's been laid down and thrown it out of his pram along with every toy he owns.
Quite a few newspapers in England are this morning leading with the news that Sturridge is eyeing the exit doors at Liverpool this summer after he became fed up with the way Liverpool are publicly treating his injury record. At the heart of the matter is the fact that Sturridge seems to think he's injured a lot more than medical professionals seem to think he's injured.
So, essentially, Daniel Sturridge reportedly wants to leave Liverpool this summer because he's sick and tired of people believing he's not committed to Liverpool.
Thankfully, the irony of that has not been lost on anyone.
"He's so sick of people saying he doesn't want to play for the club that he doesn't want to play for the club" pic.twitter.com/MubOPIVD1H
— Michael Deacon (@MichaelPDeacon) February 4, 2016
Given that Sturridge is thought to be Liverpool's highest paid player on somewhere in the region of £140,000 a week, the Anfield hierarchy have every reason to edge him towards the exit door this summer. With two and a half years remaining on his contract, you'd have to think this will be Liverpool's best chance to cut their losses.
Leaving aside the issue of wages, he did only cost £12 million when he moved from Chelsea so if any decent profit can be made on that figure it may be best for everyone involved. Given that Liverpool have just missed out on Sturridge's potential replacement with Alex Teixeira heading for Jiangsu Suning in the Chinese Super League, perhaps Ian Ayre and the Liverpool transfer committee can head over to the far east and try flog Sturridge for somewhere near the €50 million that Shakhtar received for Teixeira.
