Liverpool wonderkid scored five goals in one game before breakthrough and bitterest of exits

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All the latest news and analysis from Anfield on the Liverpool Echo's dedicated LFC Facebook pageWith the club's star player departing Anfield in the wake of the title miss, it may be that little could have been done to stop an outstanding young talent, who although partly bred through the Academy system had no previous ties to the club or the area, wanting to go if he felt his ambitions to be successful would be better served elsewhere.But it's also hard not to feel that Liverpool were very slow to react to Sterling's increasing influence on the team's attacking fortunes and by the time they did look to reward him for his stellar progress, it was too late.Sterling was just 15 years old when he joined Liverpool from Queens Park Rangers for £500,000 in the final days of February 2010. 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.

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.

By the time Liverpool did look to open contract talks it was too late.The team was clearly in decline, had been eliminated from the Champions League before the knock-out stages and had a battle on its hands to secure qualification for the following year's competition.Rodgers had repeatedly answered questions about Sterling's future by saying he was confident he would put pen to paper on a new deal but in early April, the player himself confirmed in interview with BBC Sport he had turned down a new £100,000 a week contract with Liverpool and wanted to wait to the end of the season before making a decision on his future, while insisting he was not a 'money-grabbing 20-year old'."It's not about the money at all," he said. Right now he probably should be a Liverpool player, but he’s not and he’s in a great place at City."The whole miserable situation stuck in the craw with many Liverpool supporters for a long time with Sterling booed repeatedly when returning with City for years afterwards.In March 2020, with Liverpool finally closing in on the 19th league title they'd threatened to win with Sterling - who by now had two championship medals of his own at the Etihad - at the helm, he was asked about his former club."Would I ever go back to Liverpool?