The fee the West London club received would've softened the blow at the time and QPR's eyes would've certainly lit up once they received their 20% cut of the fee Liverpool received for the winger. They reportedly netted £9.8 million from this, which makes him the fourth-highest fee received in the club's history, despite never playing a senior game for them.The deal they cut with the Reds certainly proved fruitful but as Sterling has dazzled in the Premier League, the Champions League, and with England on the international stage, it will have been hard for some fans in W12 not to wonder what would've happened had he stayed put.
Raheem Sterling
Given his sparkling talent, the likelihood is that the 29-year-old would still have reached the top of the game had he stayed on with the R's rather than headed to Liverpool.
It may have taken a little longer for him to be recognised and the Loftus Road faithful could have been treated to a few brilliant seasons as a result but that top-flight move and the success that followed would surely still have come.
He bagged seven goals and seven assists for the Reds in the Premier League in 2014/15, the sort of output that could perhaps have helped the R's avoid relegation back to the Championship at the first time of asking, while the West Londoners would surely have got more than the seven-figure fee they earned as a sell-on, just look at the sale of Ebere Eze.
Sterling may even have resisted a move to Chelsea, given the historic rivalry with QPR, had he spent longer at his boyhood club.
It is all, of course, hypothetical but these are the scenarios that some fans will have been playing out since their former academy player's rise to prominence.
Bright Osayi-Samuel
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