Prone to hyperbole and ridiculous extrapolations much????
I don’t want him to succeed?? Hahahaha!
Yes, I do realize they play on the same team! DUH! I also realize he is the least technically gifted of the bunch of players I mentioned, all of whom appear to make considerably less than him, and I fully understand he tries to make up for that in other areas. Not every Barca player is Messi and not every City player is David Silva or KDB.
Ok I will try and be as objective and fair as I can and start this by saying that yes I agree that for the player he currently is, sterling doesn't deserve parity with de-bruyne, silva and aguero yet. I've already said so in many of the responses I've given on this subject and even other posters that have defended him have said the same. He still has a lot in his game to learn and improve on especially with the technical side as you said to take him to world-class level which I feel he currently isn't at. With that said where I will disagree and many seem to have an issue with is that you seem to be going the other way of trying to undermine both his talent and what he's previously done to prove how undeserving he is of any supposed wages he wants and as such have lost any sort of objective view on the player. I get that tends to happen when you feel you have to strongly defend your point but that is what a lot seem to be defending him against to you as a result.
Firstly you made a point in one of your earlier posts that he's only had one good season which is just not true. Even though many try to forget about pep's first season because it ended trophy-less, sterling did have a good season that year. He finished that season with 10 goals and 20 assists(inc pens won) in all comps and even for an eye test you can watch match highlights of most games or a season review video to see how crucial and influential he was especially during the early stages of that season. In fact until the last couple of months where his formed dropped a bit due to him being amongst the most used players at the time he was in contention with both silva and de druyne for player of the season for the team. So let''s not try and rewrite history and make it seem like last season(which was excellent rather than good) was the only season he'd performed since joining.
Now on the point about what he deserves to be paid which brought into question his ability. You seem pretty stuck on this idea that a players technical ability is the most important judge for how good they really are. If that's how you really think then I can see why you would view his talent so unfavourably to the rest of the team but thankfully football doesn't work that way. To break down what constitutes to make a players talent/ability there's 3 main parts. The technical side of it which includes passing, crossing, shooting, ball control, dribbling etc. There's the mental(football IQ) side of it which deals more with the tactical area in regards to movement, timing of runs, spacial and tactical awareness, anticipation of play, vision etc. Then there's the physical which is their speed, acceleration, balance(low centre of gravity), strength, stamina etc. So those are the three key areas you have to look at when judging a players ability.
So to make it easier lets just say a player with a 1 in technical ability is deemed someone who is weak in most of the attributes that consists of it(Mangala), and a 5 someone who excels at most of it(de-bruyne,silva) and lets also apply that to the mental and physical areas therefore mangala will be a 4 for physical. So using that rating for example, players like bernardo silva, mahrez will be 5 on the technical side, a 4 on the mental side and a 3 on the physical. Sane will be a 4 on the technical, 3 on the mental/tactical side and a 4.5 on the physical. Raheem meanwhile will be a 3 on the technical side, a 5 on the mental side and a 4.5 on the physical. Imo sterling is one of the most tactically intelligent and aware players when looking at the mental side of the game not just in the team but in european football. So where he may be lacking in technical ability to his teammates, his football IQ coupled with his excellent physical traits is a dangerous combination that renders most of those technical weakness almost irrelevant. It's why despite an opinion I tend to agree with that he may be the least technically gifted in a team blessed with many technicians(which is not a shame as he's still better than majority of wingers in the league in that area), he has still been a key first choice player going into his third season despite the purchases of quality players in his position.
Its that side of his game that means he can be deployed in any position in the attack, he can come inside and affect a game like the first goal against leicester away last season, but more importantly and where pep values him the most is the ability to sense an attack developing and not only anticipate it 2 steps ahead, but often time his runs to perfection to get into the dangerous positions to get the easy tap-in which is not an easy skill to have. Therefore as good as sane is technically, he doesn't yet have that football IQ that sterling has in his game and likewise bernardo and mahrez don't have his movement and timing of runs aligned with his physical attributes. The problem is most football fans don't see or recognise that part of his game in regards to what he does when he doesn't have the ball and only look at how good a player is on the ball(technical), its how they will always view players like sane, bernardo and mahrez as the better players simply because they can bang one into the top corner from 30 yards or go on a run beating 4 players, yet fail to fully understand why its sterling who seems to have the managers trust and consistently picked to start.
To conclude this post and bringing it back to the main point of his contract, yes sterling may not be the most technically gifted of his teammates, but what he offers not only makes up for that but could be argued is more valuable as its the rare combination of a player who has a very high football IQ coupled with an incredible pace, acceleration, balance as well as decent technical ability. Its why pep and his staff seems to rate him so highly and have said so themselves. It's what has contributed to 2 previous seasons that have ranged from good to excellent where he was a vital member of the 1st team and no other player besides aguero has contributed to more goals than him. I personally feel for what he's done the past 2 seasons and the age he's at, he should definitely be considered amongst the most valuable players to the side even more so than sane and jesus and although he doesn't yet deserve parity with the top earners he shouldn't be too far off them. If he decides not to sign the contract and leaves, it won't be the end of the world and the club will move on but anyone that tries to downplay his obvious quality as a player and influence over the past 2 seasons is being a bit disingenuous.
