Liverpool reward Raheem Sterling for rapid rise with new contract worth £35,000 a week If you go into a lot of clubs as a young player it is a nice little journey. If you go in at one of the biggest clubs in the world it is magnified one million per cent. It is our job to nurture him and educate him and there is still so much for him to learn. He hasn't long left school. It is not only football education he needs but life education as well. We will support him in that and make sure the expectancy is at the correct level. He's come in at 17 and it's been great how he's performing but his job is simple: to score goals, create goals, make interceptions and tackles. He knows his job so how can we make him do his job better? It's about making sure he knows it's his responsibility. Rodgers was adamant Sterling would sign a deal that offered incentives for continued improvement rather than give the impression he is already established. The estimated £35,000-a-week, five-year contract - agreed in principle and scheduled to be penned today - is seen by the Liverpool manager as another step towards fulfilling rising expectations. "He has been rewarded as a young player who, at 17 years of age, came in and performed very well," said Rodgers. He will never be elevated above his position here at the club. There is a lot of development and a lot of nurturing to go yet, but he has been rightly rewarded and it is fantastic for the football club. I always congratulate players when they sign a new contract and then I warn them. I tell them they need to decide after this contract whether there is going to be another contract at one of the biggest clubs in the world or whether it will be at a different level. They can't rely on this contract and I make sure they know that. When I look at players and speak to them I always go through several things. What is your commitment to help us achieve here? Then once I think they're committed and they're in it for the right reasons it's the plan, the organisation. He needs to know at 18, when I'm talking about him improving, what he needs to improve. How can we improve his goalscoring, his creativity, his efficiency in the game? Sterling is likely to be joined at Liverpool by Blackpool's Thomas Ince, although the Championship club have rejected an initial bid, believed to be worth £4 million. The Lancashire side, who paid £500,000 for Ince last season, say Liverpool's offer is "well below what they'd expect for a player of Tom's talent." Liverpool, meanwhile, will be looking for a new financial director in the new year as Philip Nash leaves his position. Nash, formally of Arsenal, was appointed under the regime of Tom Hicks and George Gillett. He is heading out of Anfield for family reasons, with Liverpool insisting it is his own decision. His exit is the latest in a series of executive departures in the past 12 months, following the commercial director, two directors of communications and a director of football. Anfield's other young starlets of old Robbie Fowler Known as "God" to Liverpool fans, Fowler was 18 when he scored on his debut, a League Cup tie against Fulham before scoring five goals in the return leg. He scored a hat-trick on only his fifth league game for the club and managed 183 goals in total. Michael Owen Scored on his Premier League debut in 1997, aged 17. The following season he finished joint top-scorer in the Premier League with 18 goals and won a place at the 1998 World Cup Finals with England, for whom he scored a brilliant individual goal against Argentina. Steven Gerrard Was first spotted by Liverpool at the age of nine and made his senior debut at 17. Became established as a key member of the Liverpool team while still in his teens and was awarded the first of his 100 England caps the day after turning 20 in May 2000.