The Weekly Take, Issue 218: A Career-Derailing Move?

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.

The Weekly Take, Issue 164: Fulfilling the Hype

Cast your mind back to 2014. Raheem Sterling, then a 20-year-old Liverpool winger, had just received the Golden Boy award as the football world's best young prospect. Despite not even having completed two full Premier League seasons at the time, there were already expectations that he could someday be the player who would revive the then-flagging fortunes of Liverpool as well as England's national team.

Since then, his career progression has not proven to be as linear as many had first assumed it would. Though he might not necessarily have hit the heights predicted of him at first, he has had an impressive career to date nonetheless, winning three Premier League titles and the Premier League's Footballer of the Year award in 2020. Despite this success, Sterling has faced his share of criticism (including from me) and more; some of it warranted, others completely unjustified and unacceptable for much more unsavory reasons.

In either case, Sterling did much to silence his critics with an outstanding performance in England's 2-0 victory over Germany in Euro 2020's round of 16. The Manchester City winger scored the first goal of the match and caused major problems for Germany's defense throughout all 90 minutes.

Throughout this tournament, Sterling has proven to be a perfect fit up for England. His interplay alongside star centre-forward Harry Kane has proven to be vital in powering England into the last eight. What makes this even more impressive is that although he had already proven it at club level, Sterling's performances in this tournament have solidified his status as a genuine goalscoring threat - an unthinkable scenario just a few years ago.

Sterling has netted three of England's four goals thus far. He has now scored 15 goals in his last 20 appearances for the Three Lions. To put his dramatic improvement as a goalscorer into context, Sterling had only scored two goals for England over his first 45 matches covering a six-year stretch. At club level, Sterling scored more goals from 2017 to 2019 than he had in the entirety of his career up to that point. When this newfound touch in front of goal combined with his speed and dribbling skills, it is little wonder that Sterling has established himself as a key part of a Champions League-contending Manchester City team as well as an England team which might have international silverware in its future.

On top of his skills and physical attributes, Sterling has intangibles in spades. Though his Manchester City team has often been prone to wilting under pressure, this is an area in which Sterling as an individual player cannot be blamed quite as much. This is where the "unsavory reasons" I alluded to earlier come into play.

Time and again, Sterling has been subject to high-profile racist incidents. The notoriously capricious British media has only exacerbated the issue by often portraying Sterling in a negative light. It speaks volumes of his mentality and intangibles that he has not only been able to compartmentalize these issues and play at his usual level; as I mentioned, he has even improved tremendously throughout all of this.

To be completely honest, I got it completely wrong when I first formed an opinion on Sterling's ceiling. Four years ago, if someone had told me that he'd someday reach this level, I would not have believed that person. Even before this tournament, I was in favour of benching Sterling and starting Marcus Rashford instead because I honestly thought that Rashford would've provided more of an attacking edge. To the pleasure of England fans, I have been proven completely wrong.

Looking back at the list of Golden Boy winners, Sterling does not figure at the very top. Obviously, Lionel Messi has to top the chart, followed by Cesc Fàbregas, and Sterling's former City teammate Sergio Agüero. One could also make arguments for Paul Pogba and Wayne Rooney, while Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland clearly have higher ceilings. That said, to only be behind the names mentioned at this point in his career - once again, though it may have taken a while, Sterling has lived up to the hype.

Is the crowning glory of Sterling's career to date just around the corner? With the way the draw has opened up, it's a distinct possibility.