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Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola played a crucial role in securing Raheem Sterling’s new contract, the Mirror reports.
It says City had been reluctant to make England international Sterling one of their top earners on £300,000 a week until Guardiola stepped in.
City “were refusing to pay up” — but that changed when he “urged them to make the deal happen because the 23-year-old was a player he could not afford to lose.”
Although the club often leave negotiations to sporting director Txiki Begiristain, Sterling “committed himself until 2023 after the manager made a personal intervention.”
The Mirror says Guardiola believes the former Liverpool attacker “has been the victim of unfair criticism since he quit Anfield in a £49 million deal three years ago.”