Raheem Sterling joined City the year before Pep Guardiola left Bayern Munich, in July 2015, for a record £50m – at that time the highest fee paid for an English player. After a lacklustre first season, he joined England for their disastrous 2016 Euro campaign which saw them knocked out by Iceland in the last 16. A disappointing first year followed by a disastrous summer. Enter Pep. City’s football director, Txiki Begiristain, had signed Sterling specifically in anticipation of Pep taking over. “He had a spark, a capacity to shake off markers. He’s explosive and above all he’s got that burst of pace which takes effective wide players to the goalline. Even then, it was also clear that he was a guy who loved to cut in, too.” Begiristain’s football instincts were correct. Under the guidance of Pep and his team, Sterling has become a truly world-class player. In his first season under Manuel Pellegrini, Sterling managed only six league goals and by the second half of the campaign had lost his place as a regular starter. “The huge transfer fee was actually pretty detrimental in terms of his self-confidence, which is so important for any player. As things didn’t…