Chelsea are growing increasingly confident that they can complete a deal for Manchester City forward Raheem Sterling this summer. Sterling is available for a cut-price fee as he has only one year left to run on his contract at the Etihad Stadium, so could leave on a free in 12 months.
Sterling has been talking to people at Chelsea about what Thomas Tuchel is like as a manager. The only stumbling block could be the size of the fee. Sterling has been at Manchester City for the past seven years, after joining from Liverpool in 2015
READ ALSO: Manchester United close in on Ajax’s Antony Matheus
Chelsea’s Lack Of Goals
Goals were an issue for Chelsea last season however, Sterling has proved to be a reliable goal scorer. In his time at City, he has scored 131 goals in 339 appearances. He joined City from Liverpool for an initial £44 million in July 2015. Since then, he has gone on to win four Premier League titles, one FA Cup and three League Cups.
Erling Haaland and Julian Alvarez’s arrivals increase the competition for places in attack. Added to the presence of Phil Foden, Jack Grealish and Riyad Mahrez, a starting spot will be harder for Sterling. He is aware that there will be fierce competition for places in Pep Guardiola’s starting XI next season. Gabriel Jesus could also depart the club with Arsenal making the Brazilian their No 1 striker target.
Sterling, who can play out wide and through the middle as a false nine, could help fill the void left by Romelu Lukaku at Chelsea. The forward is pushing desperately to seal a return to former side Inter Milan.
Both Clubs are locked in discussions and will hope to reach an acceptable fee. A year after the £97.5 million switch which took the Belgium striker to Stamford Bridge for the second time in his career. Inter are ready to cover the whole salary they agreed with Lukaku. Having seen a proposed fee of about €5 million rejected, they are expected to reach a figure that would be acceptable.
