According to Gary Jacob, and reported by John Townley, Aston Villa have began negotiations with Chelsea over a potential move for Raheem Sterling. The experienced winger has been the topic of conversation where Chelsea are concerned in the last week or so after being publicly exiled from the Blues' squad by new manager Enzo Maresca.
#AVFC have opened talks with Chelsea over a potential move for Raheem Sterling, as per @garyjacob.
— John Townley (@johntownley11) August 22, 2024
The 29yo is currently training at home after being axed from Enzo Maresca's first-team plans and wants to leave Chelsea permanently before the window shuts next Friday.
Maresca has a tough job on his hands taking over a Chelsea team that has a huge squad full of young, but expensive, talent. Since 2022, the Blues have splashed out more than £1 billion on players and has resulted in a squad of 54 senior players currently under contract (with eight out on loan). Chelsea have signed Pedro Neto from Wolves and Villa transfer target Joao Felix from Atletico Madrid in the last couple of weeks which has seen Sterling's place in the Chelsea team vanish. Sterling was not part of the matchday squad in Chelsea's opening game against Manchester City and things went from bad to worse for Sterling when it was announced that Neto was taking his squad number (seven).
Enzo Maresca has spoken to the media about Sterling's situation at the club in the last couple of days:
"“I’ve been honest, he will have no minutes here. I am not saying Raheem is not a good player but I prefer different kinds of wingers. It’s simple.""
It looks certain that Sterling will leave Chelsea if a good enough offer is made. A move to Villa would also largely depend on the player willing to take a pay-cut as Villa are almost certainly unable to afford his £325,000 per-week wages. With Aston Villa looking to replace Moussa Diaby who left the club in July, Sterling could be a good option. Let's take a look at the potential benefits to the England international signing for the Villa.
Champions League experience
With 83 UEFA Champions League appearances to his name, Sterling would bring a huge wealth of European experience to the club. As Villa are now one of the teams competing in Europe's elite competition it would be more than handy to have a player in the squad who has so much history playing the top clubs around the world on a midweek evening. Sterling has 27 Champions League goals to his name and his help and experience would massively benefit the likes of Ollie Watkins, Morgan Rogers and Jacob Ramsey who have never played in the competition before.
Ability to score goals
Throughout his career, Sterling has scored goals from all sorts of positions and angles. With 123 goals from 379 Premier League appearances he boasts a very good goalscoring record for a winger/midfielder and he has scored all types of goals. From free-kicks to back-post tap-ins, Sterling has a real eye for goal and with the number of chances that Villa create each game he would be likely to score a number of goals in an Unai Emery team. Even last season in a poor Chelsea side, Sterling managed to score ten goals and produce eight assists in all competitions for the Blues presenting similar numbers to those of Leon Bailey, who had an excellent season.
On the flip side, Sterling has been criticised throughout his career for his inability to be clinical in front of goal. Manchester City and Chelsea fans have been critical of his wastefulness in front of goal particularly when the chance is a fairly simple one to tuck away. Furthermore, Sterling is also criticised heavily for his dribbling ability with many saying he gives up possession too easily. Last season, Sterling was only successful 34.1% of the time from his 132 attempted one-on-one take-ons. Compared to Leon Bailey (48%) and Morgan Rogers (51.5%) as examples, Sterling seems to give the ball away a lot more often than his would-be Villa teammates.
Talks are likely to develop quickly over the next few days with a conclusion one way or another likely to be reached by early next week. It would be a difficult deal for Villa to complete due to the financial implications regarding salaries but Sterling could be a useful addition to the squad. At 29-years-old he is certainly not at the end of his career by any stretch and during a season where Villa will play a huge number of games he could be a quality player to have in rotation.
UTV