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Liverpool have ruled out a move to the red half of Manchester for Raheem Sterling, but that hasn't stopped United's noisy neighbours Manchester City from making a definitive declaration of interest in the young winger, if by "definitive declaration" you mean a "verbal offer" and by "interest" you mean "not enough interest to submit a written offer outright."
The Citizens have allegedly offered £25m plus £5m in add-ons for Sterling's services, with the promise — for reals! — to follow up the verbal offer with something in writing at some point in the unspecified future. In a (pre-)transfer window where Arsenal have allegedly already bid £40m for Sterling, it seems like a completely unserious offer from City if they genuinely wish to buy the player in the midst of a bidding war that, admittedly, has far fewer participants than Aidy Ward might want.
Legitimate or not, most Liverpool fans will not be too thrilled with the idea of letting Sterling go for such a relatively low fee if he's to continue plying his trade within the Premier League. Fan expectation might be a bit on the high end when it comes to the numbers thrown around as the minimum Liverpool should accept for a bid from a Premier League rival, but most would agree that £30m isn't even worth batting an eyelash at when Liverpool continue to hold all the cards in Sterling's negotiations.
Manchester City's main bargaining chip here is that they're not Manchester United, though getting a club to take your phone calls is but step one in a much longer process of purchasing a player. If they're serious in wanting Sterling now, they'll have to increase their bid dramatically; if they're not, then there's not much point in worrying about it at this stage.
