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Your support makes all the difference.Liverpool have agreed to sell unhappy winger Raheem Sterling to Manchester City for a fee that could rise to £49million.
With the 20-year-old winger expected to sign a five-year deal worth around £200,000-a-week, the total cost of the move could reach £100m.
Sterling may be touted as the most valuable young player in Europe (see gallery below) but many supporters and rival fans believe the huge fee is a bit of a stretch.
Here are a few facts and figures about Sterling's proposed move:
- Manchester United will pay only £1m more for Morgan Schneiderlin (£24m), Bastian Schweinsteiger (£14m) and Matteo Darmian (£12.7m) combined (£50.7m approx) than City will for Sterling.
- Queens Park Rangers will pocket just shy of £10m from the deal, having included a 20 per cent sell on clause when the youngster moved to Liverpool in 2010.
- Sterling costs more money than Real Madrid paid for Zinedine Zidane (£46m); although inflation would change that figure.
- Sterling becomes the most expensive player under the age of 21 ever, costing more than Lucas Moura to PSG (£31.8m), Luke Shaw (£30m) and Wayne Rooney (£27m) to Manchester United and Real Madrid signing Nicolas Anelka (£23m).
- He also becomes the most expensive Englishman ever, dwarfing the £35m Liverpool paid for Andy Carroll. In English football, only Fernando Torres (£50m, Chelsea) and Angel Di Maria (£59.7m, Manchester United) have cost more.
- Last season 30 players scored more than the seven Premier League goals Sterling managed.
- Seven of those were English: Harry Kane, Charlie Austin, Saido Berahino, Wayne Rooney, Danny Ings, Steven Gerrard and Peter Crouch.
- Sterling, who mainly played as a winger, also managed seven Premier League assists, fewer than 15 other players including Angel Di Maria (10), Leighton Baines (nine), Jamie Vardy and Jordan Henderson (both eight).
- He will become City's most expensive signing ever. Sergio Aguero Cost £38.1m, Robinho £32.5m, while Tevez is now in eighth at around £25.5m.
- Sterling will be the eighth Englishman signed by the Abu Dhabi Group since 2008. A total of £95m was been spent on James Milner, Gareth Barry, Joleon Lescott, Jack Rodwell, Scott Sinclair, Adam Johnson and Wayne Bridge.
None of those players are still at City and only Barry (bought for £12m, played 123 matches) played more than 100 Premier League matches for the club - in total they played 392 games, or 49 each on average.
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