Raheem Sterling is adamant he would have travelled to the Far East on Liverpool'spre-season tour, before a phone call from Brendan Rodgers telling him his Liverpool career was over.
Sterling was driving into training on the morning of July 12, when then boss Rodgers told him they had accepted a bid from Manchester City and he would be leaving Anfield.
"Morning gaffer," Sterling answered, according to the Mail. "Just on the way to training."
"Okay, come into training but you're not coming on tour; we've accepted a bid," the Northern Irishman replied, after months of uncertainty following an acrimonious contract stand-off between the player and the Reds hierarchy.
Sterling had missed two days of training through illness earlier that week, with critics suggesting it was part of a ploy to force through a move to the Etihad prior to the start of the season.
The wrangle began much earlier than that, in February of that year, when Rodgers said in a press conference: "He has been offered a wonderful deal, an incredible deal for a young player."
Sterling and his representatives felt that was a plan to force him into signing a fresh deal with the Reds, and was ultimately the beginning of the end.
The England man comes up against his former employers for the first time this evening, when Jurgen Klopp's side travel to the Etihad.
He is sure to be in for a rough reception from travelling Reds, who roundly booed him at the final game of last season at Stoke, which signalled the final straw of his Anfield career.
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