First of all he does produce end product... consistently. His key pass numbers and chance creation numbers are up there with almost anyone in the league. He's done this despite moving position (seemingly every game or even within games...sometimes not even playing in attacking positions) and after spending a lot of the season being our only attacking player who was playing well
Secondly you're paid according to what you can negotiate. The fact is Sterling has a COLOSSAL value on the open market - higher than Sturridge's or anyone else at our club
Unfortunately for the club his agent(s) realise this and our absolutely in a position to ask for maximum wage because they know he can get it elsewhere... it's quite literally his worth. Not morally or ethically but according to the market
You're misunderstanding where I'm coming from. When we're comparing the justification of Sturridge's wages and Sterling's apparent demands, Sturridge has more claim to his than Sterling does right now.
On the end-product thing - key passes are great. But goals get the money, and he isn't scoring enough goals to justify his demands. If any player wants wages comparable to a striker's, they have to be putting up strikers numbers. Sterling isn't right now, so the club would be right to hold back on 150k and ask where the extra 50k of output is. Xavi has more key passes and assists than Neymar, but Neymar is the higher paid player. That's just an example. In the history of the game, goalscorers have almost always demanded the most wages, because they do the thing that the game is about. So you can see where the club might say "hang on a minute - where are the goals to justify that money?"
I'm not saying I agree one way or another, by the way. I'm saying there is a legitimate case for both parties. It's not as simple as saying "just pay him what he wants". The club is not a bottomless pit of money, so they have to be careful with what they're paying for. If Sterling can get more than we're prepared to pay, on the open market, then that's his bargaining chip, for sure. The bargaining chip the club have is that he has 2 years left, and hasn't done enough right now to demand the figure he's reported to be demanding. They have a solid platform to make that stance. In the end, if he signs, it'll be because of a compromise on one or both sides. But when it comes down to the bare bones of football, goals talk louder than anything else, and Sterling right now is not too flush in that category. And so the club are probably justified in pulling the reins a bit.
