Paul Merson gives his thoughts about the Sterling situation, and he makes a lot of sense:
Liverpool star Raheem Sterling is just one bad decision from ruining his career
I'M desperately worried for Raheem Sterling - and that's worrying in itself!
Why should I give a **** about a young kid who's turning his nose up at a £100,000 a week pay packet?
But my problem with the fiasco going on at Liverpool is that I know this boy is just one bad decision from potentially shunting his career into the sidings.
At 20 you have to cut anyone a bit of slack. But what he - and his advisors - are thinking of, is just mind-blowing. It's madness.
Sterling will end up a very rich young man come what may but if he came to me for advice, I'd take him a few places and show him how things can go wrong so quickly.
I'd ask him to have a word with Scott Sinclair, one of our brightest young prospects now trying to rebuild his career at Aston Villa after a couple of years of hardly kicking a ball at Manchester City.
I'd show him Shaun Wright-Phillips sitting on the bench at QPR and then tell him to go and have a word with Christian Benteke at Villa who was going to the World Cup as a £30m player, or so he thought.
He was making noises that he wanted to leave Villa, got a bad injury and everything has changed for him now. He's got five league goals this season and the queue of clubs trying to sign him has disappeared.
David Bentley, was supposedly the new David Beckham and ended up retiring at 29.
Then there's Michu on the bench at Napoli. All these players were the hottest thing around one minute, only to see it all change.
And while I was at it, I'd get Sterling to stand outside Anfield and try to explain to hard-working fans why he wasn't satisfied with a deal that would give him in a WEEK what it takes many of them around six or seven YEARS to pick up.
Trust me, Sterling is now stepping into the middle of a crisis that has nothing to do with whether he plays football or not.
He's in danger of being vilified by his own fans when he should be a an absolute hero.
I worry for this lad. I really do.
One bad decision or wrong move might make you rich beyond your wildest dreams but it can send your career on a downward spiral.
Liverpool fans are very loyal and they are extremely knowledgeable. It's a working class city where most people have to work really hard for their money.
You can lose the fans in the blink of an eye. They can't get their heads around someone grumbling in this way and I can't get my head around it either. They deserve better.
Fans don't get it. You are living the dream. Every supporter behind the goal would swap everything they had to score for their team in front of the Kop.
This is all about making bad decisions. When people ask where are all the good English players, it's not that they aren't there, it's just that some have made wrong decisions.
Sinclair chased the money and went to City. There was no chance he was going to play every week.
He's bright, he must have known he wasn't going to play a lot of the time. If he'd have stayed at Swansea, enjoyed it and developed even more, he would probably have been an England regular now with 30-odd caps.
Look at Shaun Wright-Phillips. He's at QPR - I'd forgotten he was there.
Where is Sterling going to go? He can probably only go to Real Madrid or Barcelona.
He can't go to Manchester United. He ain't going to Arsenal because they won't pay. City? Maybe, but £50m plus millions more in wages is still a lot of money even for them.
Why would a 20-year-old want to go to Spain where you can't speak the language and all the other pressures that go with it?
If Gareth Bale is getting stick then that should set the alarm bells ringing because Sterling isn't in his league.
Any agent in their right mind should be telling Sterling to put pen to paper on a great new deal at Liverpool. Why isn't that happening?
He'd only be 24 when that finished. If he's that good he will get the move because money talks. Even a massive club like United couldn't hang on to Cristiano Ronaldo when Madrid came calling.
Sterling needs to improve for a start. It's the easiest thing in the world getting to the top but staying there is the hard bit.
You know, sometimes the problem is that these players don't have a lot of belief in their own ability. It's like they have to move there and then, when in reality, if you are good enough it will come anyway.
Listen. I've made enough bad decisions in my life. I went to Middlesbrough for a lot more money than I was on at Arsenal but it was the wrong decision.
Money turned my head. Luckily enough, my move worked out and I went to the World Cup, but that didn't make it the right decision.
Saido Berahino at West Brom is another. He gets in the England team, suddenly he wants to leave.
Is a coincidence they both have the same agent?
Sterling should be warned. He's got it made at Liverpool. Someone should tell him and sharpish.
