Sturridge leaving had fuck all to do with Ched Evans IMO despite what some posters think. Fucking hell, Evans actually left the club almost straight after Sturridge so it’s a bollocks argument. You’re right that he was strutting around in some of those latter appearances plus there was that argument with Elano about who should take the penalty against Arsenal earlier that season.
I’d say it had fuck all to do with Hughes as well. There were stories linking Sturridge to Chelsea as far back as the FA Youth Cup Final against Liverpool in 2006 and I suspect he was tapped up by Chelsea and a deal agreed before Hughes became our manager.
Despite his attitude in some of those games, I don’t abuse him when he plays against us though. Chelsea were a far better team than us back then so I can understand why his head was turned. And singing “one greedy bastard” given some of the money we’ve chucked at players down the years is ironic in the extreme.