Raheem Sterling and Liverpool saga an 'absolute mess' says Adrian Bevington

Former FA director of communications Adrian Bevington says there are no winners in the contract battle between Liverpool and Raheem Sterling.

Doubts over Sterling's future at Anfield have been making headlines over the last six months and the turmoil has increased this week.

Sterling's agent Aidy Ward was quoted on Thursday saying Sterling would not sign a new contract, although he refuted making those comments, and later in the day a meeting between the club and Sterling's team was cancelled.

The subject of Sterling's future dominated Brendan Rodgers' press conference before Sunday's Premier League finale and he is determined that the 20-year-old England international will see out the last two years of his deal.

But Bevington, who now runs a sports public relations company, told the Morning View: "First and foremost, no-one is winning here. It's an absolute mess.

"It's been played out publicly for far too long. Why on earth we have had six months of contract negotiation stories across the newspapers on a daily basis? Why do we need to know that?

"It's certainly not the way that Liverpool would have preferred this to have occured, or the way they have historically conducted their business.

"Who's actually dropping the stories, none of us are absolutely certain how and why. But what I would say, is why did we know two or three days ago that there was going to be a meeting, or there was a meeting planned for later this week?

"It was in nobody's interest for that arrangement to come out because then people need to know what the outcome was. Then we have a situation where Raheem's representative says he's not going to have the meeting so what was the purpose of that?"

But Bevington did have praise for the way Rodgers has handled the situation, revealing on Friday talk of Sterling's contract could even continue for the next two years if it was not resolved.

He added: "I think Brendan handled it really well. I think what should have happened three or four months ago is that there should have been a meeting where they said 'too much has been said already, we're going to have some discussions at the end of the season and we're going to issue a joint statement to say we've agreed no further comment will be made'.

"Liverpool do actually hold the ace here as they have the contract. Obviously the risk for them is, over the next 12 months, if they hang on to him, they may not get as much money in the transfer market if they decide to sell him in a year's time. If they choose to dig their heels in they can make it very difficult that way.

"But do they want to have an unhappy player in the dressing room? I've dealt with Raheem and he's a very likeable individual, I buy into what Brendan said, in that I am sure he just goes in every day and goes about his work, and is not causing any problems, but it's not in Raheem's interests to have this level of pressure on him.

"That is damaging to his long-term reputation."