In football logic, he is obviously worth what a club is willing to pay. Sometimes clubs get it wrong, as with the ridiculous fee for Carroll, but I reckon Sterling is well worth the money to Liverpool. After all, he is an integral player to them, has a decade, and then some, football in him, and they will struggle to replace him.

It would be fine if it wasn't for the fact that he'd be looking for 180k in a couple years and so on. It's not a sustainable policy.

Everyone will be looking for £180K in a few years with the money that keeps coming into Premier League.

It's not sustainable. Ultimately, its the fans that suffers.

United can do it easily.

If sterling is not signing because he's after more money I think that's wrong, he's still only 20, he'll get his big contract eventually when he's proven himself a bit more. But even so,  Liverpool should bite the bullet and give him what he wants. He's an amazing player and it's a one in a million chance to find someone like him through the youth set up. They won't be able to buy another player with the same ability. They pride themselves on being a club with principles but they'll have to give in here. 

Coutinho, Sturridge, Sterling, Henderson - if they want to progress they're going to need to keep those players. And there's no doubt that Sterling is the most talented out of that group. 

Patters wrote:

If sterling is not signing because he's after more money I think that's wrong, he's still only 20, he'll get his big contract eventually when he's proven himself a bit more.

Footballers don't think like that, though. What if this is as good as it gets for him? What if Liverpool play him against some cloggers next month and he ends up on the wrong side of an illegal tackle and breaks his ankle? What if he tears his knee ligaments in preseason and is set back years in his development? It's not exactly unheard of. There are a lot of factors that decide whether someone will ever fulfill their potential. And that's what you're betting on as a football club: whether the player will be worth the investment or not. Players aren't going to earn less than they could for a few years just because they have it on good faith that they will be rewarded for it in some hypothetical future.

That's fair enough, I get that. But there's still some sort of limit. Maybe I've lost touch with what is a good wage now but the reported £100k a week seems good money for a prospect who Liverpool are helping to develop. As others mentioned, in a couple of years if that career ending tackle never comes he'll be demanding much more and getting it. 

Footballers pretty much have all the power now but they should, IMO, have a responsibility not to rinse clubs that are desperate to keep them. It's why I've gone off Theo after his behaviour for getting this current contract. 

That's a fair point, Patters. I don't think players will act responsibly until clubs do, unfortunately.

When you look at the money that comes into Premier League, how it's spent, and how much the collective debt of the league still increases each year, one would think that they'd have to regulate heavier at some point in the future. The league simply has to change and work towards long-term goals instead of looking for quick billionaire fixes. When it does, the first thing that is going to be cut down is player contracts. And at that point I suppose it's fair to expect young talents to not behave like cash-grabbing grubs.

My prediction for this summer will be exactly the same as last summer: United will have an eye-popping transfer window. They'll bring in the guys they need to win the league next year. Strikers, Pogbas and defenders.

It's only a matter of time before United are back at the top. You can't drop 150m a summer and keep fighting it out for 4th. Eventually they'll click.

Claudius wrote:

My prediction for this summer will be exactly the same as last summer: United will have an eye-popping transfer window. They'll bring in the guys they need to win the league next year. Strikers, Pogbas and defenders.

And you'll be wrong again. Pogba won't go near United. They may do slightly better than last summer if they're in the Champions League but they ain't gonna catch City and Chelsea any time soon. Not a hope. Regardless of who they manage to recruit with the crazy Dutchman in charge, and I genuinely believe that his reputation has waned sufficiently as to be as off putting for prospective top signings as the city of Manchester, but, more importantly, he's not the man that's going to turn them into title challengers again. He's well past it as far top managers go.

Ricky, his reputation has waned sufficiently from what? The crazy Dutchman has his team in 4th and within a win of 2nd. This a team that didn't even make Europa League this season. Give credit where it's due. He's righting the ship, even with his 100 formations. He also has pieces that he can trade as necessary. I said last year, they'd blow everyone out of the water with their purchasing, and I was laughed at. They did. They'll do it again this summer. And this time they will be challengers. In the long run, we cannot compete with these guys. We fluffed the last two seasons without a credible threat from United

Falcao and Di Maria will be telling anyone who's willing to listen to steer well clear of LVG.

Claudius wrote:

Ricky, his reputation has waned sufficiently from what? The crazy Dutchman has his team in 4th and within a win of 2nd. This a team that didn't even make Europa League this season. Give credit where it's due. He's righting the ship, even with his 100 formations. He also has pieces that he can trade as necessary. I said last year, they'd blow everyone out of the water with their purchasing, and I was laughed at. They did. They'll do it again this summer. And this time they will be challengers. In the long run, we cannot compete with these guys. We fluffed the last two seasons without a credible threat from United

That's a load of rubbish, in my opinion.

He has a huge squad of pretty good players, and with said squad he has managed to still win less points than Chelsea, City and Arsenal, even though they have had to stretch their squad to competing in the Champions League. That's a very poor return. And don't play the card about them finishing 7th; the squad was far better than that and you know it. Poor management from Moyes and the mitigating circumstances of an era ending is why they finished below teams they clearly had a better (and more expensively assembled/paid) squad. Not to mention they spent £150m+ on strengthening it last summer.

You were wrong last summer for the same reason you'll be wrong this summer; you said they'd blow everyone out of the water and sign the calibre of players that we, for example, can't and catapult themselves back into being proper, serious title challengers. They didn't do that because nobody wanted to join a club that was a)not in the Champions League, b) in a shit part of the country and c) managed by a geriatic that hadn't won anything noteworthy for god knows how long. All they got was di Maria, a guy they had to pay stupid money for and to. And he has certainly not gotten them any closer to the big boys.

And here you are again saying they're going to sign Pogba and a couple of other worldies and then win the League with the crazy Dutchman outfoxing Mourinho, whoever they have at City next season and Wenger? Not a hope, there's more chance of Harry Kane learning to breathe through his nose than them winning the League next season.

Well, Harry Kane is never going to learn how to breathe through his nose, so...

Ricky can I ask you a true or false question?