I think the general feeling was that if City offered £50m we would accept the offer. I suggest that with City dragging their heels and wasting our time and energy the price should go up. min £60m now... and if we have to take him on pre-season the price goes up further.
I wouldn't mind us not selling and plying him in the reserves
Are you nuts!? There are only 2 good solutions:
1) we keep him and play him in the first team
2) we sell him when city make their next offer and use the money to buy a striker
Your suggestion benefits nobody at all.
It may seem that way in the short term, but perhaps not in the long term.
I give credit to FSG in the way they refused to let Suarez go the first time it kicked off... and credit to Suarez for his attitude in the his final season. If Sterling shows similar professionalism then of course play him.
My suggestion for putting the price up and perhaps not selling is to deter others from seeing us as a soft touch... and the suggestion to play Sterling in the reserves is if his attitude isn't right, his performances levels are not up to the mark and if his agent keeps causing us trouble in the press. The only players anywhere near the match day squad should be committed professionals. Ideally that should also be the case for the pre-season stuff too but unfortunately due to Sterling, his agent and City our pre-season will be disrupted.
