By Sam Wallace
CHIEF FOOTBALL WRITER
Liverpool will strenuously reject a
remarkable set of allegations from
the agent of 18-year-old Bobby
Duncan that the club have engaged
in “mentally bullying and destroy-
ing the life” of the striker in refus-
ing to countenance a sale or loan.
In a statement that alleged
Duncan had “deep mental
health issues” as a result of his
career impasse, the player’s
adviser, Saif Rubie, blamed the
club’s highly regarded sporting
director, Michael
Edwards, for blocking
the player moving
away. Liverpool
reject all allegations
made by Rubie
against Edwards
and the club, and
will defend their
position.
It was alleged
by Rubie that
Duncan, who is the
cousin of Steven
Gerrard (right) and
was top goalscorer
for the under-18s
last season,
would never play
for the club again
Striker Bobby Duncan
‘bullied’, claims agent
Accusations are a big
mistake, says Carragher
despite having signed a contract
that runs until the end of next sea-
son. As the statement circulated on
social media, Rubie was accused by
the former Liverpool defender
Jamie Carragher, now a columnist
for The Daily Telegraph, of damag-
ing the player’s career.
Following a Twitter exchange
between Carragher and Rubie, it
seemed that Duncan’s attitude
might be changing. The teenager
undid the retweet of the original
statement post from Rubie and ap-
peared to be listening to the advice
of Carragher on Twitter that he
should show more patience, having
played for the first team in pre-sea-
son. Carragher tweeted that
Rubie had made “a big mis-
take” and was “hurting” his
client’s career.
Carragher added: “I
think @bobbyduncan999
should leave this guy [Ru-
bie] before he [Duncan]
gets sacked by the club.”
In a series of allega-
tions in a statement of
more than 500 words,
Rubie said that Dun-
can was being forced
to “stay against his
will” at Liverpool.
He alleged that, as an
agent, he had brokered
loan deals with an
option to buy worth
“£1.5 million upwards”
for Duncan to move
away from Liverpool.
Rubie alleged thatthese were rejected by Edwards. He
said that Duncan no longer wanted
to be at Liverpool, although he did
not specify why that was the case.
Rubie alleged that Duncan had
been suffering stress as a result. He
said: “The Liverpool hierarchy have
shown zero consideration to that
and have even gone as far as saying
in writing that they will punish him
and make him stay until January
and beyond to teach him a lesson.”
“This is not really dignified
behaviour from a club with the rich
history of Liverpool, and one of
their greatest-ever players, Steven
Gerrard, happens to be Bobby’s
cousin. It’s a sad state of affairs that
a club such as a Liverpool can be
allowed to get away with mentally
bullying and destroying the life of a
young man such as Bobby.”
The club issued a statement say-
ing that for the sake of the player
and the severity of the allegations
made against Edwards they would
not be responding in detail in a
public forum. Duncan was signed
by Liverpool from Manchester
City’s academy last year and is well-
regarded in development circles.
Despite his connection with Ger-
rard, there appears to be no advice
sought by Duncan from the man
who spent 26 years at the club as a
junior and then a professional, and
later returned as an academy coach.
Carragher described Rubie’s deci-
sion to reference Gerrard in the
statement as “embarrassing”.
Liverpool said they were “aware
of and disappointed by the unat-
tributed comments and unfounded
allegations that have been made
regarding one of our players.”By Tom Morgan
SPORTS NEWS CORRESPONDENT
Tottenham Hotspur are the English
team at most risk of the toughest
Champions League group during
the draw held in Monaco today.
Premier League champions Man-
chester City have pot one status,
along with Liverpool and Chelsea,
thanks to their Champions and Eu-
ropa League titles respectively.
Their favourable rankings means
the three English clubs will avoid
the Spanish, German, Italian and
French title winners.
Spurs, despite reaching last sea-
son’s final, find themselves in pot
two, at least guaranteeing them of
avoiding Real Madrid and Atletico
Madrid, who missed out on titles
last season. This season’s group-
stage draw will be held in its usual
location of the Grimaldi Forum in
Monaco at 5pm BST.
Outside pot one, the rankings are
decided in rank order of the re-
maining 24 clubs’ European coeffi-
cient – which is a calculation of
their performance in the Champi-
ons League and Europa League
over the past five years.
No two teams from the same as-
sociation can be drawn together at
this stage – so there will be no Eng-
lish derbies just yet.
Antonio Conte’s Inter Milan will
be in pot three, setting up a poten-
tial draw against his former
club, Chelsea.
There will also be awards for the
Uefa men’s and women’s players of
the year and the Champions League
goalkeeper, defender, midfielder
and striker of the season.Spurs could get toughest
Champions League draw
Gerrard’s cousin
accuses Liverpool
of ruining his career
Rising star: Bobby
Duncan in action (right)Sport Football
European nights Today’s Champions League draw details
How it works
Pot 1
Consists of the
holders, the
Europa League
winners and
the champions
of the six
highest-
ranked
nations.
Pots 2 to 4
These are
determined by
club
coefficient
rankings.
No team can
be drawn in
the same
group as teams
within their
association.Pot 1
Liverpool
(holders),
Chelsea(Europa
League
winners),
Barcelona
(champions of
Spain),
Manchester
City (England),
Juventus
(Italy), Bayern
Munich
(Germany),
Paris St-
Germain
(France), Zenit
St Petersburg
(Russia).Pot 2
Real Madrid
(Spain),
Atletico
Madrid
(Spain),
Tottenham
Hotspur
(England),
BorussiaDortmund
(Germany),
Napoli (Italy),
Shakhtar
Donetsk
(Ukraine),
Ajax (Holland),
Benfica
(Portugal).Pot 3
Lyon (France),
Bayer
Leverkusen
(Germany),
Salzburg
(Austria),
Olympiakos
(Greece),Club Brugge
(Belgium),
Valencia
(Spain),
Inter Milan
(Italy),
Dinamo
Zagreb
(Croatia).Pot 4
Lokomotiv
Moscow
(Russia),
Genk
(Belgium),
Galatasaray
(Turkey),
RB Leipzig
(Germany),
Crvena Zvezda
(Serbia),
Slavia Prague
(Czech
Republic),
Atalanta
(Italy), Lille
(France)Group stage
1 Sept 17-18
2 Oct 1-2
3 Oct 22-23
4 Nov 5-6
5 Nov 26-27
6 Dec 10-11Quarter-finals
April 7-8, 14-15Semi-finals
April 28-29,
May 5-6.Final
May 30,
IstanbulWhen
The draw will
take place in
Monaco at
4pm BST.TV
Live on BT
Sport 2Glory night: Liverpool with the cup
4 *** Thursday 29 August 2019 The Daily Telegraph
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