I'll have a stab ( as mostly a defender of Sterling over the years)Raheem is a player in his prime, not some half-arsed worked-out donkey. His contribution to us for the past 6 years was immense. What I can find in media we did fuck all to try to keep him. Always a workhorse, almost never injured and we let him leave for less money than that Brazilan dude from Everton. And we then let the other Brazilian dude leave, the one who is almost Raheem's clone when it comes to above mentioned attributes.
Lillo was obviously the one who changed our approach to defending, more organised slightly sitting further back to the middle. If Pep wants to go his old ways, good luck with Halland, Grealish and Mahrez up front. Just my opinion, or I just did not catch that Halland hysteria train.
He is in his prime by age but his stats have been in decline since a peak in 2019 a year of brilliance from him btw.
We have been having contract talks for 2 years, the guys that do these things will know when a player is interested in signing or is about to do a Milner.
He is in the last year of his contract and 50m+ is an absolute steal by City, it means we have had him for his wages only and that makes the signing from Liverpool even more bargainous.
If you don't think that Haaland is a quality player then god knows what you haven't seen from him in all this time, it doesn't have to be labelled hype either, the guy has scored at every club he has played for bar the very first one and even then another team saw what he had in his locker.
But back to Sterling, we can not afford to let him leave for free, this is how finance now works, if it wasn't for ffp we maybe would have let him play out his contract, pat him on the back and say thanks for all the goals and assists good luck in the future.
50m+ can not be turned down.