Manchester City have spent £49 million (Dh280m) to prise Raheem Sterling from Liverpool, that’s an awful lot of money for a player age 20. In fact, it represents a great investment, if Sterling reaches anything near his potential.
There are obvious risks when investing in youth, because there are so many variables — form, injury, attitude. Football is littered with players who were tipped for superstardom, but never progressed and ended up having merely “good” instead of “brilliant” careers. For every Cristiano Ronaldo there is a Shaun Wright-Phillips.
POLL: Should Raheem Sterling have stayed at Liverpool?
But take a look at Manchester United’s then-British record purchase of Rio Ferdinand, in 2002, for £29.1m from Leeds United. A humongous fee at the time, but Ferdinand spent 12 trophy-laden seasons at Old Trafford. Wages aside, he cost them £2.4m a season, which is far less than the cost of buying a new centre-back every three or four seasons.
That is the kind of return City hope to get from Sterling — he could easily spend a decade at the club.
If he does, then it is an exciting prospect for City fans as Sterling is probably the most gifted young English player around. He has plenty of improvement to make, especially in terms of goalscoring and all-round team work, but his pace and dribbling ability are what make him stand out, and they will be a huge asset to City.
City will back their coaching set-up to help Sterling make the necessary improvements. He is likely to line up on the right of the attack and will provide more cutting edge than Jesus Navas, who occupied that spot for most of last season.
Two things must worry City, though.
One, that his attitude becomes a problem. He effectively forced a move away from Anfield with two years still to run on his contract: what is to say his head won’t be turned again in the future?
Two, the cautionary tale of Wright-Phillips. The City youth product got his big-money move to Chelsea in 2005, but never progressed as a player beyond being fast and being a decent dribbler with the ball. His crossing never improved and, despite 36 England caps, his career fell flat.
Sterling’s short career so far has seen him improve season-on-season since his debut in 2012, and he has the platform at City to take the next step towards becoming a superstar.
If he does then, come 2025, £49m could be seen as an absolute bargain.
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