Raheem Sterling deal: It wasn't long ago £49 million would have landed you Zinedine Zidane
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Updated 14/07/2015 at 20:42 GMT
Where were you on the day Raheem Sterling became the most expensive English footballer of all time?
Raheem Sterling poses for pictures with City fans.
Image credit: Eurosport
Giving it large like Raheem a few weeks ago on a flyboard in Ibiza perhaps? Or maybe not.
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Raheem Sterling (via Instagram)
Image credit: Instagram
Judging by the trends on social media - #WelcomeRaheem - a lot of you were hanging out on Twitter making your views known after news filtered through around 5pm (BST) on Tuesday that the England winger had finally signed a five-year contract with Manchester City after departing Liverpool.
City did not gloat too much about their largesse, but did inform us that the deal was a transfer record for an English player.
Are City getting value for money at £49 million? Or were Liverpool unbelievably shrewd in flogging a 20-year-old, who is only three years out of their youth system, for such a staggering fee?
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New Manchester City signing Raheem Sterling poses with a club scarf as he leaves the club's Etihad Stadium in Manchester.
Image credit: Reuters
This is an interesting little tweet from the Premier League regarding official assists that should hearten the City fans.
The previous transfer record was created by Liverpool when they purchased Andy Carroll for around £35 million from Newcastle United in January 2011. Sterling had not even turned out for Liverpool's first team at that stage. Time moves quickly in football.
When you think of English football's greats, you recall names like Matthews, Greaves, Charlton and Moore through to the modern era of Gazza, Shearer, Keegan and Lineker. Not Sterling or Carroll.
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Raheem Sterling
Image credit: Eurosport
The millennium began only 15 years ago. But in the world game, it feels like decades ago when Real Madrid handed over an estimated £48-50 million to snag Zinedine Zidane from Juventus.
That happened in 2001 and was deemed value for money because Zizou was the game's greatest and most creative attacking figure.
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Zinedine Zidane signs for Real Madrid.
Image credit: Panoramic
Zidane scored one of the greatest goals in European Cup history a year later in Madrid's 2-1 final win over Bayer Leverkusen at Hampden Park. It's difficult to see Sterling providing a similar moment for City.
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Raheem Sterling has the Midas touch after £49 million move to Manchester City.
Image credit: AFP
In a sign of the times, a player who has done little or nothing in football is deemed to be worth the most money of any English player. Only time will tell if he can become "one of the world's greatest" as City have declared.
He has a long way to go to even establish himself as an English great yet he will apparently pick up £180,000-a-week which is around £10.4m-a-year. He is made for life whether or not he makes it at City.
Some of the club's fans, who sampled life in League Two and were brought up on a diet of men like Shaun Goater, Peter Beagrie and Terry Phelan, will view Sterling's arrival as the norm.
The frightening aspect of all these goings on is that Sterling's record is unlikely to last as long as Carroll's. Anybody fancy Harry Kane for £50 million? Sounds a bit cheap these days.
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