Oliver Brown: Time for Raheem Sterling to create headlines for on-field deeds

England manager Gareth Southgate, right, shakes hands with Raheem Sterling. Photo / AP

Of all the emotions stirred up by Raheem Sterling, indifference is rarely an option - even if you happen to be his manager.

After a draining week, Gareth Southgate could have straight-batted any reference to England's most polarising figure, but instead acknowledged that he had considered dropping the Manchester City midfielder for turning up late to training before England's World Cup warm-up against Nigeria.

"Maybe 10 days ago, there were doubts about selecting Raheem," he said. "My initial instinct was what was right for the first team. He has been under fire this week and I had to protect him."

As a phrasing, "under fire" was perhaps not the most felicitous way to describe a man who had etched his calf with the image of an M16 assault rifle. Then again, how does one couch a rational debate about Sterling?

Criticise his gun tattoo and the accusations of racism gush forth like a raging cataract. Double down by highlighting his suspect timekeeping and a small army of bien pensant hipster bloggers will happily flay you.

Somewhere along the line, Sterling has outgrown the football realm, becoming a showbusiness property whose antics elicit every shade of opinion. Either you are "Team Raheem" or you risk being traduced as a wretched saboteur. Cool detachment, even in a gentle World Cup warm-up against Nigeria, appears impossible.

Let us be clear, though: journalists covering Sterling are not compelled to be cheerleaders.

Leave the Three Lions tub-thumping and the "Back the Boys" hashtags to the PR gurus. One hopes that Sterling, once he heads to Russia, rediscovers the vibrancy and versatility that made him such a luminous Premier League star last season. But the cold reality is this: his tardy arrival at camp was an unprofessional lapse, on which he was rightly called out, not least by Southgate himself.

It did not seem as if the extra attention before the Nigeria game had unsettled him too much. Sterling was nimble and lively in leading England's attack, lashing one shot fractionally high from Dele Alli's pass and holding up the ball perfectly for Harry Kane to score the second goal.

He was rightly shown a yellow card by referee Marco Guida for a risible dive. In the present febrile climate, the very suggestion would invite claims that reporters were persecuting the poor lamb. But it was a reminder of a cynical dimension to his game that Sterling would be well-advised to cut out.

Sterling, after the tumult of the week just gone, shone at times, if not at his brightest, and could benefit from more precious game time against Costa Rica on Friday morning (NZT) at Elland Road.

Contrary to popular suspicion, there is no media vendetta against Sterling, no gratuitous blood-lust where he is singled out for his every misstep. By and large, he is fairly lauded when he merits it and castigated when he does not. Over these next few momentous weeks, Sterling has it within his gift to start writing his own headlines.