Matt’s family say he often struggled to emotionally switch off from football, and that negative comments on social media had begun to have an impact on his mental health.

He found breaking bad news to players about their place in the squad or future plans particularly difficult emotionally, according to Debbie.

“Matt always felt so bad having to let someone down,” she explains. “There would be tears, they might have shouted at him, and the player’s family and the fans could sometimes be negative towards him too.

“He and other staff members would make the decisions but, because he had to deliver the news, the emotional burden all came down on to him.

“Matt was there for everybody and he hated letting people down. He looked out for everyone else, but sadly not himself.”

In the summer leading up to his death, Matt had been appointed manager of Burnley in the third tier.

But Matt’s family say he wasn’t happy with the way the club was being run. WSL side Leicester City made it known they were interested in hiring Matt.

BBC Sport understands Burnley turned down an offer from Leicester to buy out the rest of Matt’s contract. Matt then resigned, but the move to Leicester never came to pass.

Burnley placed Matt on gardening leave, meaning he was unable to work or talk to other clubs for a period of three months.

Burnley declined a request to comment from BBC Sport on the nature of Matt’s departure from the club.

In a pre-inquest review hearing last week, Debbie alleged that Burnley “bullied” Matt. The inquest was adjourned indefinitely.

Burnley said they were “aware of an ongoing legal process and will not be making any comment at this time”.

Debbie believes the time Matt was unable to work contributed to a deterioration in his mental state.

“He wasn’t allowed to say goodbye to his players or tell them why he left,” Debbie says. “That had a huge impact on him.

“He was finding it hard, [worrying about] how he would provide for the family. I was working three jobs just to get us through.

“I think he felt like a bit of a failure.”

Liverpool are gearing up for a summer of change and will soon enter one of the most important transfer windows in the club’s recent history.

This week, The Athletic will assess possible options for the outgoing Premier League champions in the positions that are most pressing: forward, central midfield, full-back and centre-half.

We’re starting with the attack. Losing prolific goalscorer Mohamed Salah after nine years and facing up to a lengthy period without striker Hugo Ekitike, who is expected to be out for months with a ruptured Achilles, has sharpened the need to strengthen a forward line that was already light on numbers. Federico Chiesa is also likely to go, while there seems to be little appetite to reintegrate Harvey Elliott after his season out on loan at Aston Villa.

So who could be in contention to come in?

Right forward options

One certainty for the upcoming transfer window is that Liverpool must add a right-winger. Of the current squad, Rio Ngumoha is better on the left and right-back or right wing-back Jeremie Frimpong does not provide enough threat when played further forward.

Last summer’s additions mean the focal point of Liverpool’s attack has moved away from the right flank, but what is clear is whoever they recruit needs to possess several qualities that ideally would include pace, the ability to win one-on-one duels and an off-the-ball intensity that makes them a disruptive presser.

Michael Olise

Age: 24
Current club: Bayern Munich

A contender for this year’s Ballon d’Or who has taken his game to another level since joining Bayern Munich from Crystal Palace two years ago and would fall into the category of the Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz signings from summer 2025 when it comes to price and talent levels.

Olise offers everything you want from a modern-day winger. He is a left-footed, right-winger who has pace, power and the fast feet to dance around any full-back. There are few in world football operating at his level. In 50 club appearances this season, he has scored 22 goals and provided 30 assists. Ridiculous numbers.

Now for the disappointing part: there’s no indication he is looking to move, and his contract runs until 2029. Bayern executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge also recently said that no price tag would make them consider selling the France international.

Yan Diomande

Age: 19
Current club: RB Leipzig

The teenager is on his way to becoming one of the most exciting wingers in world football, and the data suggests he is one of the players who profile similarly to Olise. While set to be expensive, he is a more feasible target than the Bayern man.

Having only moved to RB Leipzig last summer from Spain’s Leganes, he has wasted no time in showing off his quality. He possesses raw pace and loves to dribble — and one of his best attributes is that he is versatile, providing threat from either flank; plus, 12 goals and eight assists in 32 Bundesliga appearances as a teenager in his debut campaign is not too shabby.

The potential is obvious, which is why any fee to buy him will be significant. Like Olise, Diomande also signed a five-year deal when he arrived in Germany. And as one of the hottest prospects in Europe, Liverpool would also face competition for his signature.

Rayan

Age: 19
Current club: Bournemouth

Rayan only arrived in England this January and had the big shoes of Antoine Semenyo to fill, but in the four months since he was signed by Bournemouth for an initial £24.7million, he has wasted no time showing the talent he possesses.

The Brazilian is capable of playing on both flanks, but the left-footer is another who is most comfortable playing from the right. He uses his pace and power to carry the ball forward into central areas and has the physical frame and aerial ability required to succeed in the Premier League, even at such a young age.

While Liverpool have a good relationship with Bournemouth, getting them to sell a player who signed a five-and-a-half-year deal in the previous transfer window is a different story. It is widely reported that a €100million release clause was inserted into his contract, so he would not come cheap. There is also the issue of how long he could take to settle into English football, despite his five goals and two assists so far in 13 appearances.

Yankuba Minteh

Age: 21
Current club: Brighton & Hove Albion

If Arne Slot does continue as Liverpool head coach, as is currently expected, then he already has experience of working with Minteh, who spent a season on loan under him at Dutch side Feyenoord before joining Brighton from Newcastle United in summer 2024.

Minteh is a versatile winger who can play on either flank but favours the right, which is where Slot predominantly used him. He is quick and a progressive ball carrier but while he has nearly two seasons of Premier League football under his belt, both his decision-making and out-of-possession work need refinement.

He would be the cheapest of the four options covered in this section of our article, but that would partly be because of his lack of output. Minteh would need to make a significant leap from the three goals and four assists in 32 Premier League appearances in all competitions he has contributed for Brighton so far this season.

Wide players who can switch between wings

Bradley Barcola

Age: 23
Current club: Paris Saint-Germain

He’s the most exciting potentially obtainable player on the list, and one who would definitely lift spirits among Liverpool supporters going into next season.

Barcola leaving PSG, even if his game time has been limited, would be tough, given the French club’s status as one of the best teams in the world, and Liverpool pulling together the funds to sign him also appears to be unlikely after last summer’s big spend.

But he’s the type of player who should be considered if they are serious about strengthening for next season. At his age (turning 24 in early September), he’s the perfect profile of player who is ready to make an immediate impact, stick around for years, and still hold considerable value in the future.

He can play on either wing, is brilliant in one-vs-one situations and showed last season, with 21 goals and 20 assists, that he’s a special talent just waiting to be fully loved somewhere.

Crysencio Summerville

Age: 24
Current club: West Ham United

Liverpool’s famous sign above the tunnel leading to the pitch at Anfield might need to be changed to ‘This is The Netherlands’ if another Dutchman is added to the squad.

Yet Summerville may turn out to be a market opportunity too good to turn down this summer, especially if West Ham are relegated to the Championship over the next two weeks.

He is right-footed but can play on either wing and has developed a knack for scoring and setting up important goals this season. He also has plenty of pace and trickery. The question, however, would be: does he offer enough in terms of variety when Frimpong attacks in a similar way?

Mohammed Kudus

Age: 25
Current club: Tottenham Hotspur

If West Ham survive and it’s Tottenham who are relegated and forced to sell some of their bigger players, Kudus may become an interesting option.

His performances across the first half of his debut season with Spurs were poor and he hasn’t featured since January due to a thigh injury, but that should not diminish his qualities. The creativity he showed across the two previous seasons for West Ham earned him a big-money move across London. The Ghana international is quick, direct and can play centrally if required.

In 2024-25, Kudus’ 7.2 take-ons attempted per 90 minutes played trailed only Manchester City’s Jeremy Doku in the Premier League.

One area he needs to improve is his scoring tally, and shooting in general. While Kudus creates plenty of opportunities for others, he has struggled to find a ruthless streak in front of goal.

Antonio Nusa

Age: 21
Current club: RB Leipzig

Five goals and four assists for RB Leipzig across 34 games this season may not sound like the kind of figures that will earn him a big move. The last time Liverpool signed a senior left-sided wide player in Luis Diaz, for example, the Colombian was lighting it up for Porto, with 16 goals from 28 games in the first half of that 2021-22 season.

But you have to go deeper than the numbers.

Nusa bases his game on that of Neymar and dribbles like some of the most graceful wingers in the world. His attempted dribbles volume and success rate are almost identical to Olise’s. There’s room for improvement, too, and after a failed move to Brentford in January 2024, it’s inevitable his talent will attract Premier League interest again in the future.

Versatile forwards

Anthony Gordon

Age: 25
Current club: Newcastle United

Unsurprisingly, the locally-born forward was a name on Liverpool supporters’ lips when the idea of recruiting a versatile forward was floated after the extent of Ekitike’s injury was revealed last month. He is a player the club have explored buying in the past and fits the versatile profile.

Gordon is quick, dynamic and comfortable out wide or in the No 9 role. After a difficult season at Newcastle, he looks set to be available for the right price, but at this stage Liverpool have no plans to revive their interest in him from 2024.

Jarrod Bowen

Age: 29
Current club: West Ham United

Liverpool have been Bowen admirers in the past, but while he is another who is comfortable playing on the right or leading the line, his availability likely depends on whether West Ham are relegated.

The England international has not hit the heights of previous seasons in this one but his form has improved in recent months and his eight goals and 10 assists in the league have helped give West Ham a chance of staying up. Signing someone who turns 30 this year would deviate from Liverpool’s transfer policy, but if the price made sense, it would be worth considering an experienced Premier League player. He, like Gordon, would also help Liverpool’s homegrown quota.

Kenan Yildiz

Age: 21
Current club: Juventus

Yildiz is one of the rising stars of Serie A and capable of playing across the front three. He is most comfortable as a central playmaker, so would operate as more of a false nine if played as the central striker. The Turkey international is fleet-footed, forward-thinking and likes to take people on.

Kenan Yildiz is integral to Juventus (Marco Bertorello/AFP via Getty Images)

The 21-year-old, who has 10 goals and seven assists in 35 league appearances this season, signed a new long-term contract in February. Given that he is Juventus’ crown jewel, he would be very hard to prise away. But if the Turin club were to fail to qualify for the Champions League – they are currently third in Serie A, with the top four gaining entry to the competition — they may have to consider sales.

Rodrygo

Age: 25
Current club: Real Madrid

The Brazil international was frequently linked with Liverpool last summer and is a player who was tracked by the club before he signed for Madrid in 2018. Rodrygo can operate across the front line and has shown an ability to produce in the biggest matches.

The 25-year-old had endured a difficult season, initially struggling for playing time under then head coach Xabi Alonso. He then suffered an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) knee injury in March which will likely keep him sidelined for the rest of the year and rules him out as a potential summer target.

Before heading to the airport, I get in touch with an old Dutch footballer to ask what has gone wrong with Raheem Sterling.

Jan Everse, a former Netherlands international, started his career at Feyenoord. He played with Johan Cruyff at Ajax and went on to manage PEC Zwolle, with a young Arne Slot in his team. But his focus, as a Rotterdam man, is always Feyenoord. And he is amused that a sports writer is flying in from the UK to watch a player who, in different circumstances, might have been playing at this summer’s World Cup.

“You’re coming to see Raheem Sterling?” he asks. “Does your boss not like you very much?”

Sterling, he explains, is having a bad time. How bad?

“It’s over,” he states, very matter-of-factly. “I hope I’ve made a mistake and misjudged him, but I don’t think so. Look at the comments on the internet — the fans are killing him. ‘The biggest failure in our history’, they are saying.

“He’s not fit. If he makes three or four sprints, you don’t see him for 20 minutes. He’s not explosive any longer. He falls over his own legs. He’s hesitating. He’s anxious not to make mistakes. One against one, he never passes a defender. So now, without his old speed, he plays the ball without risk. He has no confidence, and that’s because he knows he cannot do what he wants to do.

“I feel pity for him. I don’t feel pity for a lot of footballers, because I know how much they earn. But I feel pity for him because he was such a fantastic footballer and I can see the old Raheem Sterling in my memory. It’s not a happy marriage. And if you feel pity for a player with his qualities, and his background, you know it’s over.”

Raheem Sterling did not get a kickstart by moving to Feyenoord (Bas Czerwinski/AFP via Getty Images)

It’s over? At the age of 31? I came off the phone thinking it must be worse than I had imagined but, equally, I want to see it with my own eyes. I’ve been writing about Sterling since he made his breakthrough as a 17-year-old at Liverpool, throughout his years at Manchester City and a long, often brilliant England career. I know what a tough character he is. I’ve seen, close up, his elite mentality.

Arriving in Rotterdam, however, I’m not detecting much sympathy from the supporters who have gathered at Oude Haven (Old Harbour) or, opposite De Kuip stadium, the strip of bars and eateries in Puck van Heelstraat where fans congregate for pre-match drinks and patat broodjes.

“Did you see what Willem van Hanegem had to say?” asks one supporter, Dennis, wearing Feyenoord’s red and white shirt among a beery, boisterous crowd outside the Hollywood pub. “Because that’s how everyone feels. At this point, everyone will be happy when it’s over.”

Van Hanegem is one of the greats of Dutch football and such a legendary figure at Feyenoord there is a stand named in his honour. He has said of Sterling: “If I were them (Feyenoord), I would ask for my money back and say, ‘Just go home’.”

I’ve already been told that Sterling’s absence of form has led to some tense moments between Feyenoord’s head coach, Robin van Persie, and some of the journalists who follow the club.

Van Persie has had some harsh write-ups of his own this season. In February, he handed a bouquet of flowers, pointedly, to two of his press box critics to mark his first anniversary in the job. The criticism of Sterling has been another sore point. “Typically Dutch,” Van Persie complained, arguing that it was unfair to judge the player until he had been there six to eight weeks. But then we reached that point and Sterling was out of the team. So then what?

Robin van Persie has defended Sterling since his arrival in January (Peter Lous/Eye4Images/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Their game on Sunday felt very much like Sterling’s goodbye to Rotterdam. Feyenoord drew 1-1 with AZ to guarantee a second-place finish and Champions League qualification. It was their final home match of the season and Jordan Bos, an Australia international, played in the wide-left attacking position that Sterling was supposed to fill. Bos, to put it in context, is usually a left-back.

It was the third game in four that Sterling, on a short-term contract, was an unused substitute. And, crazy as it might sound, I wonder whether Van Persie may have kept him off the pitch to spare him, potentially, from any more of the ridicule that has attached itself to his previous performances.

The game, for example, at NAC Breda in March, when Sterling made his first start for his new club. He was substituted just after the hour. “Sterling didn’t start well,” Van Hanegem wrote in a column for Algemeen Dagblad newspaper. “Then he was laughed at by the crowd. I don’t really like that. That boy has won everything in his career; show him some respect.”

Or the home game against Groningen last month when Sterling entered the play as a 74th-minute substitute. A Dutch journalist sent me an update, via Whatsapp, late in the second half. “It’s getting a bit sad now,” it read. “Sterling just got on the pitch, gets a ball played to him and falls over while trying to run past a defender. Everyone’s just laughing at him in the stadium.”

In happier times, there were questions at England press conferences about whether Sterling was a future Ballon d’Or winner.

Maybe, on reflection, it was a bit over the top bearing in mind he would have had to get past two half-decent footballers by the name of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. But Sterling was seven years younger than Messi, whereas the gap to Ronaldo was almost a decade. What about when those two had moved on? Could that be Sterling’s time? And Gareth Southgate, then England’s manager, nodded in agreement, absolutely not ruling it out.

“In terms of, ‘Can he fulfil it?’, he’ll give himself every chance,” Southgate told reporters after a 5-3 win over Kosovo in 2019. ”There are some outstanding players around — (Eden) Hazard, (Kevin) De Bruyne, Messi, Ronaldo. But he (Sterling) has got the drive, he’s got the professionalism, he’s got the ability. He’s physically and mentally strong for such a small-statured lad.”

Raheem Sterling at the peak of his powers against Kosovo in 2019 (Clive Mason/Getty Images)

Well, he got close (ish). Sterling was 12th in the Ballon d’Or voting that year, then 15th when the award returned in 2021 after a year’s absence for Covid-19. For England, his 82 caps took in three World Cups. At the European Championship in 2021, he was named in UEFA’s team of the tournament.

There were four Premier League titles with Manchester City. At Liverpool, he won the Golden Boy award as the world’s best young player. And let’s not forget his MBE, in the queen’s 2021 birthday honours list, for his services to racial equality as a serious, socially engaged footballer. Ignoring, for one moment, how it ended for him at Chelsea and Arsenal, it is the kind of career that commands respect among anyone who has ever kicked a ball for a living.

So I wait for Van Persie after Sunday’s game to find out more. What has gone wrong? And what happens next?

He chooses his words carefully. “The question with Raheem was never about his qualities,” he explains. “He has scored over 200 goals in England (it’s a slight exaggeration, but OK). In my opinion, he was, and still is, a winner. And, from day one, he has worked really hard. We were building him up, fitness-wise, and he was slowly getting better… but, at the same time, we had to win every single game to achieve our goal of Champions League football.”

That last line — the inevitable ‘but’ — feels particularly relevant. What it doesn’t quite explain is why, three months in, Sterling seems further away than ever from the team. Yet Van Persie does also make the point that there were mitigating circumstances, out of the player’s control, to explain why “we knew (from the start) his match fitness was not at our level”.

Before the move to Feyenoord, Sterling had seven months without football because of Chelsea’s decision to ‘bomb-squad’ a player who had cost them £47.5million from Manchester City. There were 17 league appearances during a season on loan at Arsenal, but only seven of them starts, and three 90-minute performances in all competitions.

Sterling has only featured sporadically for Feyenoord (Sonny Lensen/ANP via Getty Images)

Ostracised by the club that was paying him £325,000 a week, Sterling took on a personal trainer while he was at Chelsea. His name is Ben Rosenblatt and, before leaving Rotterdam, I call him to ask about the accusation, in football language, that Sterling’s legs have gone.

Rosenblatt has coached more than 1,000 athletes, including world and Olympic medallists. “I’ve been in football and professional sport long enough to know that everyone has an opinion,” he says. “But I also know it’s a very fickle world and opinions can change very quickly. My experience — and I’ve talked about this to Raheem — is that it takes only one moment to change everyone’s opinion and give yourself positive momentum.”

The player, in Rosenblatt’s words, is “a freak, an incredible specimen”. As part of a specially tailored fitness regimen, Sterling was put through his paces at an alpine test track near Surrey, a two-mile stretch of steep, snaking slopes used by the British army to test tanks and armoured vehicles. But it is also clear how all that time without football has left Sterling playing a long game of catch-up.

“It was gobsmacking,” says Rosenblatt. ”When we started working with him, I was definitely thinking, ‘I don’t know how this guy can play again’. Then, within a few sessions, it was, ‘Oh, wow, that’s impressive’. We were able to get him to the point where he got back into training (at Feyenoord) and didn’t look out of place. Fundamentally, though, if you think about it in the context of pre-season, he was playing again after a week or two weeks, with all that pressure and expectation. That is something Raheem can handle, by the way. But there is a reality to it.”

It all makes sense even if, unfortunately for Sterling, he may have to understand that these questions will persist unless he rediscovers his touch next season, presumably for a new club. Major League Soccer, perhaps? Or the Middle East? Or is there a club in the Premier League who would take a gamble? All that can really be said for certain is that Sterling may have to re-invent himself during the summer.

He was, after all, a machine earlier in his career, playing more than 50 games in eight successive seasons (or 40-plus in 11). By the time he was 29, he had well over 600 games under his belt, all at the highest level. That, in turn, makes it inevitable there will be fears of burnout. Has everything caught up with him? Is he now at the point when age becomes his toughest opponent.

“I’ve enjoyed working with him,” says Van Persie. “There’s one more game to play next weekend (at Zwolle) and then we’re going to sit down together and ask him how he liked his time with Feyenoord and how he sees the future. We will do the same, from our point of view. Then we will decide if he stays or takes on another challenge.”

The stories last week that Sterling had already been told were incorrect. It feels like it is coming, though. And if nothing else, at least it seems to be heading towards a dignified parting. Everyone at Feyenoord says the same: that his attitude has been impeccable, that there have been no issues behind the scenes and that, despite it not working out, it has been good for the other players to have him around.

Ultimately, though, it is tempting to think Van Persie might regret ushering in Sterling as “one of the biggest transfers in the club’s history”. The player was billed as ‘Raheem the Dream’ and Feyenoord were so keen to give him the red-carpet treatment they moved training across the Belgium border to Tubize, 85 miles away, so he could be involved while he was waiting for his work permit.

Since then, Sterling had made only seven appearances, and just four in the starting XI. He has not scored a single goal and, though Van Persie generously pointed out there was an assist in a 2-1 win against Excelsior in March, Sterling’s place has often gone to a 19-year-old, Tobias van den Elshout, since he was removed from the team.

Sterling and his Feyenoord team-mates acknowledge the fans on Sunday (Bas Czerwinski/ANP via Getty Images)

Van den Elshout is usually a central midfielder and that, according to Everse, is damning in itself. “So you have Feyenoord playing some very important games (to qualify for the Champions League) and a guy from the youth team is playing instead of Sterling,” he says. “This boy (Van den Elshout) is a midfielder, playing as a left-winger. How can it be that a young player, who has never started games in the first team, is in the line-up, in a different position to usual, ahead of Sterling? That, for me, was end of story. You kill Sterling. Kill him! He looked very, very miserable.”

On Sunday, Sterling sat alone in the dugout — two empty seats on one side, three on the other. He has kept his distance from the Dutch media and it was made clear before the match that he would not be doing any interviews.

Later that evening, Marcus Rashford could be seen scoring a goal for Barcelona against Real Madrid in a Clasico win that helped his team claim the Spanish league. Rashford, three years younger, used to be one of the players Sterling was always measured against. Now, though, their careers are heading in opposite directions.

Yet it would be wrong to depict Sterling as looking miserable. At the end of the match, he gave his shirt to a young supporter in the stand. He went round each player with hugs and hand-shakes and he took his place, on the edge of the penalty area, as the team, the coaches and other members of staff lined up to acknowledge the crowd’s support.

Then something happened — a goodbye, a show of respect, whatever you want to call it — that felt out of keeping with the rest of the day. The crowd started singing Raheem Sterling’s name. And, for a few moments, it was just like the old times.