Raheem Sterling

[The_weatherman]

Some of the rumours reckon we've offerred £20K per week plus £5K per year wage increase (upto £45K per week if he signs for 5 years)

I dont think thats a bad deal personally BUT he apparently has much better offers elsewhere

We will be blown out of the water IMO if that's the case. He will be looking at our overpaid dross who are not starting games, and wonder "why are they getting paid better?".

The salary should reflect his importance, and he is getting to be pretty damn important.

[Lecter]

I can see that side of the argument

I do also agree with Brendan about keeping players feet on the ground when they are young

Thats probably a tad old fashioned and unrealistic though if he is in such high demand

[Tee]

Just an observation, but perhaps BR should (and could) have eased him into the first team a bit slower, like Suso, thus by the time he is 18 the hype is maybe not so high and he is more likley to sign and less likely to have these other huge offers to consider.

[RichC]

Just an observation, but perhaps BR should (and could) have eased him into the first team a bit slower, like Suso, thus by the time he is 18 the hype is maybe not so high and he is more likley to sign and less likely to have these other huge offers to consider.

Who would have played instead? Downing,Cole?

[Tee]

Who would have played instead? Downing,Cole?

We could have been clever and used Assaidi.

[saj]

Just an observation, but perhaps BR should (and could) have eased him into the first team a bit slower, like Suso, thus by the time he is 18 the hype is maybe not so high and he is more likley to sign and less likely to have these other huge offers to consider.

You have a point.

If he starts to believe the hype, by 21 it will be Raheem who? I think he is very overrated to be honest and that is not his fault. He is doing OK but he is not premiership standard yet. He lacks confidence (it doesn't help when Suarez screams at him), has next to no strength and if teams really saw him as a threat, they could easily mark him out of a game. In 2 years he could be amazing. Or in 2 years who could be plying his trade with some Championship team on loan. The route Tom Ince has taken is a good one and not many people will agree with this but he was a bigger talent than Raheem was for our reserves. It's no surprise that he is doing this well and will make it into the premiership sooner rather than later.

If Raheem is demanding £50k (which I find hard to believe) a week, I couldn't give a **** if he left to be honest .

[Tee]

You have a point.

If he starts to believe the hype, by 21 it will be Raheem who? I think he is very overrated to be honest and that is not his fault. He is doing OK but he is not premiership standard yet. He lacks confidence (it doesn't help when Suarez screams at him), has next to no strength and if teams really saw him as a threat, they could easily mark him out of a game. In 2 years he could be amazing. Or in 2 years who could be plying his trade with some Championship team on loan. The route Tom Ince has taken is a good one and not many people will agree with this but he was a bigger talent than Raheem was for our reserves. It's no surprise that he is doing this well and will make it into the premiership sooner rather than later.

If Raheem is demanding £50k (which I find hard to believe) a week, I couldn't give a **** if he left to be honest .

Oooh, controversial Saj.

I think it is very important we keep him, but not at all costs obviously. He symbolises this new direction the club is taking and losing him sends out all the wrong signals.

[Vermilion]

If we lose Raheem Sterling, then it will put the idea of rebuilding with youth in doubt, imo.

If everytime we have a good un, he gets picked off by the wealthy giants of the game we'll get nowhere fast.

[saj]

Oooh, controversial Saj.

I think it is very important we keep him, but not at all costs obviously. He symbolises this new direction the club is taking and it sends out all the wrong signals.

Ha ha. I see what you are saying but I disagree: why is it important? If Raheem leaves it will be down to him and not to LFC. If Raheem wants to chase money then good riddance because if he was to move, the fact is he would be sat on on the bench or back to the reserve/U21 football and IT WILL hinder his development and it really will be Raheem who in 3 years time. I can recall people on this forum saying he is worth £20m already! He is not worth that. Would we miss him dearly if he left now? Not really. He is young and has great potential but it's not like he currently has the same effect on the team that say Suarez does

[el matador]

raheem sterling needs to play football and be managed correctly.

england have completely messed this up for us by making the kid an international player. All of a sudden his demands have gone up by 50% even if he never wins another cap again.

This is what undoes a lot of the good work done by youth coaches. Players getting greedy and then when the big contract comes in at an early age playing football and improving is the last thing on their minds.

at the moment he's on £300 per week and look at all the crazy **** he's been involved with - assault charges, multi daddy etc...

if we give him £50k a week what the **** will he get up to then ?

[Tee]

A 'multi-daddy' cannot survive on £300 per week.

[el matador]

A 'multi-daddy' cannot survive on £300 per week.

and i suppose he would struggle on 20k a week too. Hence the extra 30k demands.

[McDermotX]

A 'multi-daddy' cannot survive on £300 per week.

[barnes10]

This is a very tricky situation.

Are we a feeder club? If we let him go then we risk setting the expectation that we are willing to let our best young players go for very little. If we promote youth to do a mans job then frankly, we ought to pay them for it if they're doing it successfully.

If we've offered 20 rising in 5k increments per year he'll still end up, in 5 yrs on less than downing. That's not very palatable tbh if he's already taken his place. If he wants to be on the same as them immediately and he's being offered that elsewhere then we have to get very close or he'll go.

I'd probably offer him 20, rising in 10k increments to leave him on 70 in 5yrs time which will give him an extra mill over the life of the contract. That reflects the kind of trajectory we want for him and we'll be helping him get there. I'd build some performance related criteria for getting the increments tho. If thats not high enough to start with i'd probably go 32.5k and up by 5k over 5yrs

[Tribute]

This is a very tricky situation.

Are we a feeder club? If we let him go then we risk setting the expectation that we are willing to let our best young players go for very little. If we promote youth to do a mans job then frankly, we ought to pay them for it if they're doing it successfully.

If we've offered 20 rising in 5k increments per year he'll still end up, in 5 yrs on less than downing. That's not very palatable tbh if he's already taken his place. If he wants to be on the same as them immediately and he's being offered that elsewhere then we have to get very close or he'll go.

I'd probably offer him 20, rising in 10k increments to leave him on 70 in 5yrs time which will give him an extra mill over the life of the contract. That reflects the kind of trajectory we want for him and we'll be helping him get there. I'd build some performance related criteria for getting the increments tho. If thats not high enough to start with i'd probably go 32.5k and up by 5k over 5yrs

most sensible approach to get him to sign and ensure he stays for the immediate future. If in the summer he's tempted by the plastic flags then fine, go, with our blessing and with a £20m price tag...

We need to secure our investment in his resale value, and if that means offering a higher weekly salary now, then so be it. In the long-term we recoup much more than the weekly wage outgoings if he jumps ship...