After seven years at Manchester City, Raheem Sterling has agreed personal terms regarding a move to Chelsea. The London club will sign Sterling from the Citizens after paying a transfer fee of £45 million. Sterling will become the Blues' first major signing since the club's takeover by Todd Boehly in May following the outcome of British government sanctions which ultimately removed Roman Abramovich from his former position as the club's owner.
Sterling's time at the Etihad Stadium was full of success. During his stint at City, Sterling was a fixture in the starting 11 throughout as he played a key role in City's four Premier League titles as well as their run to the Champions League final in 2021. However, it's entirely conceivable that this run of success could come to a screeching halt upon his arrival at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea's run of failure as far as their signings of attacking players are concerned is almost certainly unprecedented. Players such as Álvaro Morata, Gonzalo Higuaín, Christian Pulisic, Kai Havertz, Timo Werner, and Romelu Lukaku have been signed to much fanfare and often for enormous transfer fees at various points over the past half-decade. Every single one has not even come close to living up to the hype.
At this point, this is to be expected of Chelsea. Expensive dud after expensive dud in the transfer market. There are no signs whatsoever to indicate that anything will change with regard to Sterling. To make matters worse, Sterling might be one of those players who peaked young and has already started declining.
While still a relatively effective winger as of last season, Sterling has not even been close to his peak in recent years. Over the three-season stretch from 2017-18 to 2019-20, the Kingston-born player scored 55 league goals while emerging as arguably the second-best English player during that span. At the end of the 2019-20 season, Sterling was still just 25; many assumed that his absolute peak was yet to come.
However, what many overlooked was that much of Sterling's success at the time was predicated on his speed and athleticism. These, of course, are traits which will rapidly dwindle with age. Considering the frequency that a younger Sterling would "step on the accelerator", there was always the possibility that he'd begin to wear down more rapidly than would most other players. While he has not suffered any major injuries over the past two seasons, he has nonetheless shown clear signs of decline.
With this in mind, Chelsea's decision to lock Sterling up for the next five years is likely to have been a poor one. After just over half of his contract's duration, he will be 30. A player like Sterling will likely be a shell of himself by that age. By the time Chelsea are ready to ship him out, they will only be able to fetch a small fraction of the transfer fee they paid for a player so clearly on a steep downswing.
Returning to my point about Chelsea themselves: when was the last time Chelsea made a splashy signing of a striker, winger, or number 10 and had it work out? One would have to go all the way back to the summer of 2014 to find examples. Back then, Chelsea signed Diego Costa and Cesc Fàbregas. Since then, Chelsea have swung and missed time and time again. Given Chelsea's track record, there is absolutely no conceivable reason why they can be trusted with any big-money attacking signing, let alone one like Sterling who might "fall off the cliff" sooner than many other wingers.
Now, I do not think Sterling is a scrub by any means. Although I do think he has already peaked, I also believe that he has another two to three seasons as an above-average starter left in him before he really starts falling off. Certainly, he isn't washed up just yet. But when he eventually does fall off, it could really be ugly.
The reality is that all signs point to this being yet another major transfer error on Chelsea's part. It seems as though the change in ownership has not changed anything for Chelsea, at least as far as this area is concerned.
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