Sterling A Sound Investment By City

This is a post by Peter Holmes.

Few signings have polarised opinion more than Manchester City’s deal to bring in Raheem Sterling from Liverpool.

In joining City, Sterling becomes the most expensive British player in history at a shade under £50million and it’s easy to see why he is going to face intense scrutiny in the coming season.

It’s not just the transfer fee which will be an issue for Sterling, it’s also the manner of his departure from Liverpool amid claims, subsequently denied, that Brendan Rodgers was the problem behind his refusal to sign a new contract.

But Sterling isn’t the first, and won’t be the last, footballer to either fall out with a manager or cite ambition as a reason for his decision to swap one club for another.

Sure, the 20-year-old is going to get a bumper pay rise by joining City, but it’s not as though he was being offered a pittance by Liverpool to stay. And his fee is in part the premium you have to pay for English players these days, especially at a club like City where there is a clear need to sign home-grown footballers.

The big issue really is whether Sterling is going to improve City to ensure the money is well spent. Given Sterling’s age, he has the potential to be at City for the next decade or more. That may seem a fanciful statement, but if he is, then the deal is great value. And even if he isn’t, should Sterling leave for Real Madrid, for example, then City are going to recoup their investment. That’s what it should be seen as – an investment both for now and the future.

Unfortunately, the fee is going to accompany Sterling wherever he goes in the Premier League this season. And perhaps what makes it more difficult is how easy it’s going to be to make a comparison with James Milner, who moved in the opposite direction on a free transfer earlier in the summer.

Now, everybody knows the two players are almost polar opposites, and City are a much more attractive proposition in the football betting to win the Premier League with Sterling in their team as he is capable of frightening opposition defenders and changing the course of a game on his own. Yet because Sterling is most likely to play on the right wing, a position Milner primarily played, a comparison is inevitable.

Their respective stats from last season make for interesting reading. In 35 Premier League appearances, only one of which was as a substitute, Sterling scored seven goals and created seven. In 32 appearances, but 14 of which came as a sub, Milner scored five goals and created seven.

Milner’s stats were a big improvement on the previous season when he scored just once and created four goals. In the 2013/14 season, Sterling scored nine times and created five goals. Yet last season, their respective clubs scored fewer goals. City scored 83 compared to 102, while Liverpool scored just 52 compared to 101.

Sterling clearly suffered from Liverpool’s lack of a regular striker following the sale of Luis Suarez and the ongoing injury troubles of Daniel Sturridge. Indeed, there were times Sterling was played up front.

At City, he has Sergio Aguero to supply, along with Wilfried Bony and possibly Edin Dzeko, if the Bosnian is still around. Sterling’s own versatility means he can be dangerous from any position on the pitch, either out wide or down the middle.

It is inconceivable that Manuel Pellegrini is going to adopt a more cautious approach with his team, certainly in the Premier League. That makes it a strong possibility that Sterling can reach double figures for both goals and assists in the coming campaign, which is something you would never expect to see from Milner.

If he does that, then City will have a much better chance of wresting the title back from Chelsea and he will immediately repay back some of the investment in him.