COMMENT: Raheem Sterling. Why the delays? Putting off the inevitable? Just sit down and sign the contract. No matter where he turns. Whether at home or abroad. For Sterling, every option would be a step down from what he has at Manchester City.
Golden handcuffs? Maybe. But so what? So what if he has to pull back from demands of a £50,000-a-week pay-rise. At 23. Yes, still 23. Sterling's minders must know there'll be ample opportunity to maximise earning potential further along in his career. And again, if they mess this up, where's he going to go?
At home, there's no team - nor club - that can offer Sterling more than what he has at City. Now serial winners. Now with the best manager in the game. Now with a front office boasting some of the best football nous anywhere in the world. This is the beginning of a dynasty - at home and in Europe. Is Sterling going to sacrifice all that for £50,000-a-week?
And what of abroad? Where could he go? We know Florentino Perez, the Real Madrid president, has been an admirer of Sterling since his days with the Liverpool of Brendan Rodgers. But would you take City's locker room? City's coach? City's stability? Would any advisor, in their right mind, dump all that for the equivalent at Real Madrid? Of course not...
The only nagging doubt is Sterling and his camp have previous. At 15, he'd seen enough with QPR and pushed to go to Liverpool. Then, three years as a Liverpool first teamer was enough to convince him he needed to get moving again - and so came City. But now? What would he be leaving for? No club on the planet can offer Sterling what he has at City. He'd only be moving for one thing... and that should be reason enough to ask Ferran Soriano about borrowing his pen and inking that long tabled contract.
On Monday in Seville, we witnessed what two and a bit seasons working with Pep Guardiola can do for a player. By his own admission, this was Sterling at his best. Spain couldn't live with him. But it wasn't the two goals. Nor any fancy footwork. None of that had the La Roja players scrambling. It was the running off the ball. The energy. The drive. The aggression. It was something the hosts simply couldn't handle. Not the Real Madrid centre-half pairing of Sergio Ramos and Nacho. Nor Sergio Busquets, the Barcelona midfielder, just ahead of them. In that opening 45 minutes, at 23, Sterling out-thought and out-ran some of the most decorated players in today's game.
“Now I'm forgetting about looking nice," said Sterling at the final whistle, "and being more clinical and just getting in behind and causing havoc when I'm running in behind.
“That's when I'm at my best."
For some, the performance was a riposte. An answer to all those critics who had hounded Sterling during the World Cup. But this ran deeper than simple digs from the masses. For Sterling, this two-goal display was a personal atonement. He'd fought his way through all that self-doubt. All those questions about producing on the international stage. And had made it to the other side.
He now knows he can do it. As a plank in his career. As something to draw upon when that inevitable form slump returns. Monday night will be among the strongest he can lean on.
And it has to be exciting. For England fans. But especially for all those coaches. From Vernon House to the Etihad Campus. And everyone inbetween. Phil Foden. Jadon Sancho. It's now becoming more common. But Sterling is arguably the first of this current development pathway to make it all the way through. And to prove right all those convinced of his talent along the way.
Eight years ago, they knew he had a chance. This column saw a 15 year-old Sterling tear apart an Australian team two and three years his senior. He was smaller than the majority, yet more powerful. Sterling scoring with a left-foot drive as powerful as Monday's goal with his right. One England official turned to this writer and cautioned: "We won't truly know until the others catch up (to him physically)."
They'd all seen such wonderkids burn out before. But not this one. And eight years on. Season after season. The steady improvement has been maintained. The pitfalls navigated. All the way to Monday night and a performance to allay those doubts expressed in the Blundell Park stands eight years ago. We're witnessing something special develop before us.
Just sign the contract, Raz.