I really don't think it's about the money, he knows he is going to earn plenty in his career - one year of lower income will mean nothing - he'll make that up in one lump sum with his signing bonus.
he's been tapped up by the chav's - he wants to be back in London at a club he thinks he can win things with quickly - (as opposed to waiting maybe 4-5 years for it to pay off at the bin dippers.) And let's not also forget he's supposed to be even now a real mummies boy and his Mum and the rest of his family are all in London.
If you want to really piss yourself off, read this and you soon realise how close we were to signing him:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/active/10909358/How-a-scout-discovered-Raheem-Sterling-playing-football-in-a-park.html
"...Sterling was a regular in pick-up games organised by Walley on a pitch marked out in the back garden of the home of Tim Sherwood, Tottenham’s technical co-ordinator.
A trial game was arranged, between Tottenham Under 15s and a Brent Schools select, featuring Sterling, who was thought to be available for £200,000. Remarkably, Spurs turned him down, because academy coaches were split about his long-term potential and the challenges of his background. Fulham were convinced they were about to sign him. "We had Raheem in the building, and were totally blown away when Liverpool came in for the boy," admitted Barry Simmonds, their chief scout. Anderson and McParland had successfully lobbied Sterling’s family, and close friends, that Raheem’s best interests would be served by a £1 million move to Merseyside.
A month before his 15th birthday, he was billeted with ‘house parents’ and installed in the fifth form at Rainhill School in St Helens. ..."
