Sterling: I want to join England’s 100 club

Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Everton and Leicester City players featured in England’s training session on Thursday.

Sterling’s £49m move to Manchester City was the biggest transfer saga of the summer and made him public enemy No1 with Liverpool fans. “I’m not trying to say I proved anyone wrong, it’s just that I thought the time was right for me and my heart was saying that is what I should do and that is what I have done and I have no regrets”, he said.

“If you’re winning stuff at your club, and obviously other players are winning stuff with their clubs, then it will always be good if we’re going into a tournament to have a winning mentality in the team”.

Sterling is now with the England squad as the Three Lions prepare for an global friendly with Spain in Alicante on Friday night, a game that will provide an indication as to the level of the team ahead of Euro 2016 in summer.

“My family helped me get through it and now I am just really happy where I am and how it is going and where I can take my career from now. No one likes to hear the negatives, you want to hear positives all the time”, he added.

La Furia Roja – who also play Belgium during the worldwide break – have won 10 of their last 11 home games, although the visitors will take confidence that they have not lost in their last eight friendlies. But the most important thing was I tried to not watch TV, or read anything on my phone, or anything like that. “The young players and myself will be happy to be here and learning every day as we go in”.

“They (the Irish who heckled him) were entitled to their opinion and my opinion was that I thought it was time for me to move on”.

Sterling will win his 20th cap on Tuesday if he features in both matches and is part of a young England squad that does not possess a great deal of global experience.

“Hopefully these young players – and I am one of them as well – can come together and really do our best so that we can shine for our country”.

The negativity really started to gather momentum when Roy Hodgson said after England’s 1-0 qualifying win in Tallinn last October that Sterling had approached him to complain that he was “tired” and “not in my best form”.

“I am just happy to be in a squad like that and hopefully I can continue my development and win trophies in the future with the football club”.

“It’s a long time away, I’ve got 18, but 100 caps is definitely my ambition towards the end of my career”.

“We are under no illusions that we have to be at our best to beat the teams that will be put in front of us in the Euros, but these are good tests for us against Spain and France in the next week or so and we will see where we are after that”, the 23-year-old said.