Bobby Duncan: Liverpool dismiss agent’s bullying allegations as ‘unfounded’ and ‘inaccurate’

A representative of Bobby Duncan has accused Liverpool of “mentally bullying” the young forward and “destroying” his life.

A statement released by his agent, Saif Rubie, and shared by the player on Twitter, accused Liverpool of refusing to let him leave and causing “some deep mental health issues with all the stress the club has put him under”. Liverpool insist the claims are “inaccurate speculation” and “inflammatory statements”.

Duncan, the cousin of former Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard, has wanted to leave the club but any interest was dismissed by the club as unacceptable. The 18-year-old missed an Under 23s match against Southampton this week but Rubie claims that was “because he has suffered some deep mental health issues with all the stress the club has put him under. Stress of being told he can leave but then going out of their way to force him to stay against his will.

“Not only is he on a very small salary but he also has one season left on his contract after this one and Liverpool have flatly said he will not get a new one. Bobby has not left his room for four days because of this and will never go back to Liverpool again and my only concern now is his mental health and well being.

“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 at the club until January and beyond to teach him a lesson.”

‘Final straw’

In a lengthy statement Rubie added: “There has been a lot of things said the last few weeks regarding Bobby Duncan’s future at Liverpool. And today [Wednesday] is the final straw of the behaviour and dealing of Liverpool sporting director Michael Edwards.

“A few months ago before the end of last season, Bobby had meetings with the club’s hierarchy including academy director Alex Inglethorpe. It was recognised that Bobby wasn’t happy at Liverpool for different reasons and Alex invited us to bring offers to the club for the exit of Bobby Duncan.

“For a player with zero first team experience, no clubs were prepared to pay an outright reasonable fee for a player they got for £200,000 last summer. With that in mind we have been able to find clubs that were ready to take Bobby on a season-long loan with a option to buy for amounts of £1.5million upwards which is a great return for the club on a player who will never play for the Liverpool first team and who doesn’t want to be there.

“The club and Michael Edwards specifically made it clear that that kind of deal wouldn’t work. So then myself and my team worked even harder and managed to get a deal on the table for a loan with an obligation to buy after five starts with a higher transfer fee than before and a sell-on to Liverpool.”

Rubie is also adamant that Duncan will not return to the Merseyside club. “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,” he wrote.

“I know one thing for sure, and that is he is never going back there again and he’s on such a small salary that no amount of fines will even make a difference. In this situation all that matters is the players health and in this case Michael Edwards has totally ignored that because of his own stubbornness and I really pray that his experience doesn’t happen to any young players again.”

Liverpool’s response

A Liverpool spokesman said: “Liverpool Football Club is aware of and disappointed by the unattributed comments and unfounded allegations that have been made in the media regarding one of our players.

“As the interests of the player in question are not best served by either inaccurate speculation, inflammatory statements or public discourse, we will be making no further comment.

“We will, however, continue our efforts to work privately with the player to find resolution in the best interests of all involved.”