With the announcement that Liverpool have accepted a mammoth £49 million bid from Manchester City for their 21-year-old ‘wonder kid’ Raheem Sterling, you have to sit back and ask yourself whether he’s really worth it?
In short, no, he isn’t worth £49 million.
Does he have the potential to carry that price tag? Yes, one day, but that day is not today.
Currently Sterling is dubbed as England’s brightest starlet, and he does have some qualities that make him a decent young footballer; for example his speed and ability to break free of defenders and his vision to create opportunities for teammates.
However, Sterling is lacking is several areas, most obviously his ability to score goals. He has only managed to find the net 23 times in his 129 appearances in a Liverpool shirt.
The most questionable thing about Sterling is his attitude. He shocked Liverpool fans last season by refusing to sign a new £100,000-per-week contract and has then proceeded to try and force his way out of the club by failing to turn up for training and skipping Liverpool’s pre-season tour.
It’s easy to see why Sterling would want to leave Liverpool, a club that sold their best player in Luis Suarez and replaced him with a hoard of mediocre signings such as Mario Balotelli and Ricky Lambert. Manager Brendan Rodgers also appears to lack ideas.
Raheem has every right to feel like he is better than his teammates, because he probably is. You can’t blame him for wanting to upgrade and actually have a chance of winning trophies.
What Liverpool fans have every right to feel aggrieved by is the attitude shown by Sterling to their club. Liverpool fans are well known for being some of the most committed and passionate so for a 21-year-old kid to just disregard their club and all of its worth for a bigger salary must sting a bit.
Manchester City should take Sterling’s recent conduct as a warning, do they really think that he will treat their club any differently? City recently went through the same ordeal with Carlos Tevez when he refused to return to the club for training and then when he did come back he refused to play. It is surely a situation they will be keen to avoid again.
Liverpool have managed to get themselves an extraordinarily good deal, £49 million for a player who has had only one outstanding season. Even with the inflation for English players, they received a huge amount of money well above the player’s worth.
It will be interesting to see if they spend this money more wisely than they squandered the money they received for Suarez.
Freddie
Guest
If you're going to work in that business, then you need to learn to spell (or use the correct tense) Tyler. BiasED
Tyler Galea
Roar Rookie
Can't be bias in this business, Liverpool is a large talking point currently, what do you expect?
woodo
Guest
I scrolled down to bathe in sweet salty Liverpool tears. They are delicious.
woodo
Guest
Whinge, bathe in sweet salty Kopite tears, same difference is it not?
Greg
Guest
Sterling is supremely overrated, with his performance in key metrics (goals/assists/key passes) pale in comparison to many of his compatriots in the premier league or abroad, and the less said of his temperament the better. 50m is an absurd amount of money for Man city to have spent on him as well, so in the main I agree with your piece, though I take issue with referring to balotelli and 'ricky' lambert as mediocre - it's the sort of intellectually bankrupt argument that relies wholly upon hindsight; at the time of their signings, both players had come off the back of very successful seasons for their clubs
Maroon Blood
Guest
What, you couldn't tell by the title......but you read it anyway, or just scrolled down to the Comment section to have a whinge?
Swampy
Guest
Well happy to splurge on the little club's best players. Keep them little. I'm not a fan of Sterling. I believe he is waaay overrated by Liverpool and English media and supporters in general. He shone two seasons ago because Liverpool had the one of the world's best strikers who created nightmares for the opposition (for various reasons -some of them even football related). Suarez and Sturridge on fire gave Sterling all the time and space a little winger needs. He has been very ineffective ever since the demise of that partnership. Accept against City. Paying over the market (well over) for a young English player is par for the course these days. If City hadn't done it, no doubt United, Arsenal or Chelsea would have been sniffing around Anfield. For the top 4 it is better that the best talent resides on your training pitch than lining up against you. Best to remove all hope that the little clubs can hang on to anyone that might be better than Chelsea's 35th squad member. From a City point of view, whilst I dislike young Raheem - he is still young - and he is a massive upgrade on the Spanish Aaron Lemon.
woodo
Guest
"Ignoring the price tag" Which realistically we can just go ahead and do considering the relaxing of the FFP laws and that £50m is to City's owners the equivalent of a spare tenner.
Boris
Guest
Despite him being overpriced (being English does that to you), its not as stupid a decision as it may appear. Ignoring the price tag, he at least in theory fills a key hole in the City team - a pacy winger that can actually take on a man (Something Navas can't do). He will fill that gap in the squad quite nicely, assuming of course he plays well and continues to develop. You could argue there is more money than sense across the Premier League to be fair - lots of players going for values way above their true worth.
SM
Guest
Incredibly overrated like most English 'talent', and Liverpool should be delighted to get the amount City are willing to spend. More money than sense down at Eastlands.
woodo
Guest
Well said, with the scant PL level English talent going around any player that's even just capable let alone promising that fits the criteria is going to have a blown out price tag. There's been constant reports this window linking City and Liverpool with Fabian Delph. FABIAN DELPH.
nordster
Guest
Sterling being english does increase the fee. Always has. Even with their minimal local player requirements. Then there's the starlet factor....Lots of aspects to 'price discovery' with a transfer fee...i mean half of Bale's fee joining Madrid was twink factor;)
Jim
Guest
Look he isn't worth 49 million at all. But City were desperate for a decent English player (and he is decent at least) and were always going to pay over the odds for him - so the fee probably isn't that far out of whack, given: 1) He is English, 2) he is young, 3) he has talent and 4) there was the issue of the 20% sell on fee owed to QPR. He may kick on to be the player he should, he may not - who knows. But its a better approach for City to buy young English talent, then middle aged dribble such as Sinclair or Delph to fill their requirements for English players. As for Tevez, despite his antics in Munich, you really only told half the story there - he also came back to play a critical role over the last dozen or so matches in their run to the 'Agggguuuueeeeeerrrrrrrooooooooo' moment. He was difficult to manage, but City got plenty out of him - despite the hiccups along the way. Then City already have the biggest crybaby of the lot in Yaya - who has been a constant menance in terms of ridiculous behaviour, but still delivered on the pitch (Not so much last season however). As for Benteke being a 'proven striker' - he is vastly over rated, and nowhere near worth the 33 million or whatever his buy out clause is. It'll be just like the Torres- Carroll situation if Liverpool go and blow their money on Benteke. He will have his moments, but isn't worth anything like that sort of money.
Kaks
Roar Guru
I dont understand how people can continue to get the age of players wrong when you can quickly search it on google.
woodo
Guest
Oh look, another bitter liverpool article.
Tim Holt
Roar Guru
Vastly over rated, made to look good when Suarez and Sturridge were putting the fear of God into EPL defences Just on his fee, if he is worth 49 million quid, then a proven striker like Christian Benteke must be worth at least 100