[h8kurdt]

Friend of mine wrote this about Sterling's signing after a talk between the two of us. He puts it better than I ever could.

Raheem Sterling and the most damaging transfer in British football history.
*OK, so I in no way can pretend to be a great writer or have any authority on football related matters, but inspired by text conversation I've been persuaded to try this *

So, Raheem Sterling is finally on the verge of his protracted £49 million transfer to Manchester City... only this is no ordinary transfer, it's the most damaging in British history.

Firstly, all the plaudits this morning are for Liverpool, congratulating them on reaching a financially stunning deal for a 20 year old who has tried to drag the club through the mud in his attempts to force through his move to Manchester. Cast as the victims in this piece, Liverpool have supposedly been let down by a player lacking loyality, yet have held firm in the face of the media circus conducted by Raheem's agent and in return been rewarded with the biggest sum of money ever received for an English player. Well done Liverpool it seems. However, the reality is very different; Liverpool are the overwhelming winners of the monstrous system of hyper inflation in the transfer fees of young English players that they themselves have created. By showing a distinct lack of ambition in accepting Chelsea's money for Fernando Torres, and spending a completely unrealistic chunk of that on Andy Carroll, they have ensured that the parameters of skill vs age and nationality are permanently skewed in the British market. Consequently nearly every transfer of a young English talent since has ended in horrible disappointment. Carroll himself, Johnson, Rodwell, Sinclair, Shaw. Smalling and Jones still find themselves under scrutiny. Yes, English players had gone for big money to other clubs before Carroll, but the fees for Rooney, Ferdinand, Lampard have been justified by success. In one hugely misjudged deal Liverpool have, hopefully unwillingly, placed unprecedented amounts of pressure on the new generation on English players and created a grim system for themselves to exploit for serious financial gain. Will Brendan Rogers reinvest this money in a English replacement? Of course not. His club have insured there's no value in that. Bravo, Liverpool!

What about Raheem himself? We know he's not worth £49 million. We know he's yet to produce the goods for a full season. We know he has an agent who has far too much influence on him. Yet there aren't many 20 year old's around with much more potential than he has. Young, English, skilled. The nation should love him. Except he's now going to find himself the most hated player in the country. He's now going to be labelled as disrespectful. Greedy. A bad egg, as the super hypocritical Joey Barton would say. Could he have already tainted the rest of his career? The pressure levels are going to be extraordinary. Not only does he have to fit into a City team that has notoriously wasted English talents but also, after citing wanting to join a club capable of winning things as his main desire for leaving, deliver a trophy AND better Liverpool in doing so! Couple that with rediscovering and improving on his form of 13/14, together with finding much needed consistency, and it's already a pretty daunting task.

Manchester City aren't exempt from this pressure either. After the flops of Rodwell and Sinclair, and the need to fulfil the home grown quota, they desperately need an English transfer to deliver. The rebuttal of Fabien Delph will have set the alarm bells ringing at the Etihad. It was a commendable decision of Delph to put playing time ahead of money and glamour (no doubt after hearing horror stories from his new team mates Sinclair & Micah Richards) but on the flip side he's now an English international, and for the development of the national side we need our best players to be playing regular top level and Champions League football. Sterling will be the benchmark the next young English player looks to before deciding upon a transfer to a Top 4 side. Another failure and we may see the new generation settling for the relative safety of mid-table over the chance to make it at the very top.