Greedy footballers, eh? An England midfielder of substantial but hardly world-class talent turns down a lavish six-figure contract offer from his current club and threatens to leave for a rival, using the convenient fig leaf of being played "out of position". Still, this is a column about Raheem Sterling, not James Milner, so we shall have to leave that one there for now.It is interesting, though. Manchester City's Milner, according to reports, is turning his nose up at a basic salary of £135000 a week, rising to £165000 with incentives, and scarcely anyone bats an eyelid. Sterling kicks up a fuss to try to engineer an advance on his current £35000 a week pay at Liverpool, and football's synapses tingle red with rage. Clearly, there are other forces at work here.Since giving an ill-advised interview to the BBC last month, Sterling has found himself in a public pillory that will be familiar to any talented young footballer who deigns to improve his circumstances.There are currently seven Twitter parody accounts with the name "Greedy Sterling". More fundamentalist fans advocate "letting him rot" in the reserves until his contract runs out."For a 20-year-old kid to be taking on Liverpool Football Club over a contract, to the pit of my stomach that just winds me up, it angers me," Jamie Carragher said on Monday night."He's a 20-year-old boy who has achieved nothing," said John Barnes."He's not wise enough, he's not clever enough at a young age to actually go out into the media and do these things," said Phil Thompson.Notice anything? All three former players mentioned Sterling's youth.Sterling might be old enough to become a father, pay tax or align himself politically (he backed Labour candidate Dawn Butler at the recent election), but asking his employer for more money? Know your place, child!Sterling's case underlines the fact that people are still deeply uneasy at the sight of young, working-class men earning large sums of money.Sterling claimed in his BBC interview that he does not want to be portrayed as a "money-grabbing 20-year-old". Frankly, 20-year-olds need to be as money-grabbing as they can.Sterling was heckled by fans shouting "Are you staying then?" as he took to the stage to receive his young player of the year accolade at the club's end-of-year awards on Tuesday night. ..