15 hours ago
5
When the moment came, Raheem Sterling ran out of road. At long last a few yards of space had opened up and here, advertised by a spike in the decibel level around De Kuip, was an invitation to attack the Ajax right-back Lucas Rosa. There was no doubting what his mind intended to do: go around the outside, skitter along the byline and execute in the manner that has defined a largely brilliant career. For a split second the muscle memory seemed enough but Rosa’s angles were perfect and the legs had no way of compensating. Just as he had in a tighter spot before half-time, Sterling could only dribble the ball off the pitch.
Four minutes later, he would be exiting it for good. Feyenoord had gone a goal down in De Klassieker to a drab, workmanlike Ajax and the unfortunate truth was that there was only one place to look.
The home side’s slim pickings so far had come down the right flank, leading to a semi-presentable chance for Ayase Ueda; perhaps the 20-year-old Slovakian Leo Sauer, who ran on as Sterling trudged towards the bench, would offer a modicum of spark on the opposite side. Only 55 minutes of the Eredivisie’s showpiece occasion had passed.
Jakub Moder’s late penalty meant Feyenoord took a point and, for now, pushed Sterling’s struggles down the list of local agitations. A month since his debut this is a difficult spot for Sterling and a club that demands more than it is getting.
Feyenoord have no chance of overhauling the runaway leaders PSV Eindhoven and there is a sense they have done little more than stumble into second spot, which would still guarantee direct Champions League qualification. Finishing there might also keep an under-pressure Robin van Persie in the head coach job.
Perhaps the stakes are too high to bank on microwaving match fitness into a player still thawing from a half season in the cold, simultaneously expecting him to haul you over the line.
“Those two worlds need to align sooner rather than later,” Van Persie admitted afterwards. “We are working on that, where the most important thing is winning matches during this period of Raheem getting fitter and fitter.
“So I do respect and acknowledge where he is coming from, but at the same time we have to deliver as a club. We have to end up second, as simple as that. I believe that he’s making steps in terms of fitness, in terms of what he delivers. At the same time, I want to see more impact off the ball, more impact on the ball.”
There was little of either here, although Sterling could be excused from sinking to the level of a tense, niggly and largely miserable affair that only opened up when Feyenoord sensed victory having drawn level.
Scraps to feed on included an early turn of pace to salvage an overhit pass and win a throw-in, one smart first-time ball that ultimately won a dangerous free-kick and some earnest tracking back on the halfway line to maintain a rare concerted spell of pressure. But there was neither a platform for Sterling’s gifts here nor any impression he was placed to rise above the morass.
A playlist of heavy metal covers accompanied the warm-ups; a hair-raising din reverberated around this marvellous stadium’s rolling, swooping eternal curve when the teams emerged for kick-off and a banner of a bulldog implored Feyenoord to channel a similar spirit. European football beyond the Premier League has been diminished in some ways, as the standard here suggested for long periods, but remains elevated in so many others.
For the mawkish there was always the thought that all this was taking place shortly before two of Sterling’s former clubs duelled amid Wembley’s more manicured surrounds. That, in itself, is no signifier of a unique fall from grace; there were certainly no 31-year-olds in sight across the frontlines playing for the Carabao Cup. Van Persie was, at the same age, readying himself to call time at Manchester United and dial things down at Fenerbahce. It is a credit to Sterling that he chose to restart here, to an environment steeped in history and meaning, playing for something real and fronting up to a direct, demanding Dutch glare that has already been unsparing in just five appearances.
Yet it does not alter the pang of regret for the wasted years since he joined Chelsea, nor the feeling he will have to change something to survive even this level of on-pitch intensity if the old zip has gone for good. “Over the rest of the season we will see the best of him, I’m sure,” said Moder, perhaps optimistically.
Maybe Feyenoord will, in fact, sharpen Sterling back up just in time for him to go. “We both agreed that the intentions are really clear,” Van Persie said. “That it is a deal until the end of the season, that we are both really open for the future and that we see how it goes.”
Here he shared a pitch with Wout Weghorst, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Davy Klaassen, who all joined him in looking some way from Premier League level for an Ajax side barely worthy of its name. Only a superb finish by the 18-year-old midfielder Sean Steur, directly before Sterling’s departure, offered anything future-facing.
There is still time for Feyenoord to be the place where Sterling extricates himself from a bind. “He’s training every single session, even on his day off,” said Van Persie, who is pleased with Sterling’s early influence on younger teammates. Fairly or not, the clock is ticking.
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