Raheem Sterling has completed a Deadline Day loan move to Arsenal, Fabrizio Romano has just confirmed.
The winger was quite unexpectedly cast out of Chelsea’s first team group following a preseason where he had been with them in the USA, and the last week has seen the club and player scrambling to find him a new home, once Enzo Maresca had made it abundantly clear the former Man City man was going to get “no minutes” if he stayed.
Chelsea managed to get Sterling off their books – yet somehow ended up signing Jadon Sancho right at the death anyway, somewhat defeating the point of moving on Sterling. If the former England star was going to get “no minutes,” what is Sancho going to get?
A move that never really worked
Sterling’s move to Chelsea can only be seen as a major disappointment, given we paid big money for him and he was the best paid player at the club.
We weren’t in love with the deal to begin with – what convinced us it might just work is that he felt like a player Thomas Tuchel really wanted, and was potentially coming into a team that functioned really well and just needed a player like Sterling, who had a track record of producing goals and assists from wide areas.
Sadly, as we all know, Tuchel lasted just a few weeks into that season, and since then it’s been a period of utter chaos, with Sterling unable to impress much in that time. At Arsenal, where thing are nicely set up and clicking, he could well get back to his best – although he faces a big ask breaking into Arteta’s first team.
Still, it’s only a loan, so we could well have him back at the club in a year’s time… although we doubt he will be training with the first team then, either.