Don’t begrudge City star his new £80m deal... rise in Sterling is great news for everyone
soon-to-be-signed package. To dwell on the numbers too long is to be sucked into a whirlpool of dizzying obscenity. We all know that.
But, for now, football finance at elite club level is what it is.
If Salah repeats his feats of last season and helps Liverpool win the Premier League, they will probably have to rip up his deal again and give him £400,000 a week. It is the way it works.
Sterling and his people would suggest it is the market rate for a player at such a rich club, for a player considered – particularly now he has ended that almost epic scoring drought – to be integral to the fortunes of his national team, for a player who is still improving.
And beyond the zeroes on the payslip, that is the key.
When Sterling arrived at the Etihad, he was nowhere near world class.
It is still tough to file him in that category, particularly in IT IS not the most outlandish for a idea rule change, but you agree if with the suggestion that once a keeper penalty has saved a the ball should you are be dead, probably just that Paul peeved Pogba’s ludicrous run-up last Sunday against Everton was not appropriately punished. @Vardy7 “Struggling to find the right words… but to me you are a legend, an incredible man who had the biggest heart, the soul of Leicester City Football Club. Thank you for everything you did …” light of those three years without an England goal.
But he is getting there and does not turn 24 until next month.
Into a third season under the tutelage of Pep Guardiola, he has come on leaps and bounds from the talented but skittish footballer who Liverpool did well to get £50m for in 2015.
In theory, experience at a top-flight club elsewhere in Europe – at a Barcelona, a Real Madrid, a Bayern Munich, a Juventus – could be seen as a benefit to a high-profile English player.
Their insularity has been a drawback in the development of top English players, the argument can reasonably go, but not when your coach is Guardiola, playing the sort of football Guardiola is orchestrating at City.
Gareth Southgate must be delighted Sterling looks as though he is going to continue to learn from Guardiola in the long term.
And Sterling will know he has to continue applying himself because Guardiola’s options, not least coming through the ranks as was shown against Fulham on Thursday, are plentiful.
But Sterling is made of strong stuff and, no matter what the figures, if and when he confirms his long-term future is with Manchester City, it will be good news for the club, for the Premier League and for his country.