English winger Raheem Sterling has admitted that he was not happy with his lack of playing time at Manchester City last season.
Sterling was not exactly out in the cold last year – he played 49 games in all competitions – but he ended the season in and out of the team. In City’s last 13 Premier League matches, he started just eight, had room for three and was left out completely for two.
His frustration with being dropped is believed to have boiled over in March, when Sterling collided with City boss Pep Guardiola and was finally cut off from the squad for the next match, leaving the 26-year-old open for a move away from an overwhelming season that Sterling himself believes was due to feeling uncomfortable.
“It’s just happiness, just being happy, enjoying my football and that’s what I do to be here with the national team,” he said (via Sky Sports News).
“If you do not play, you are not happy. It is me, it has been me since I was little, if I play football I am really happy, if I am not I am not happy.”
Sterling is happy to be away with England / Chloe Knott – Danehouse / Getty Images
Sterling, who has two years left on his contract, is set to face discussions with City after England’s Euro 2020 campaign has ended.
“I feel there is a bit of an overreaction at all when it comes to I do not know if it is … I just feel that there is more panic on the outside than inside the building,” he said of the response to a goalless draw with Scotland . The players who have been to some tournaments, who have enormous experience, try to help the others.
“I see no one in the camp who feels any pressure or feels hard done. As much as we can inside the building, the best thing we can do is focus on the training field, focus on what is done indoors.
Sterling did not want to overreact to Scotland’s draw / CARL RECINE / Getty Images
“We really should not see what the newspapers say, what experts say. It is something we need to take for the rest of this tournament, the more you listen to outside noise, the more it can affect you.
“If you do not really look at that, the better it is for you as an individual and as a collective as well. We do not really, I do not say on the outside that it is negativity, but we do not want any negativity creeps in and performance levels fall, and confidence levels are falling, and that’s all it will do. “
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