Chelsea ‘growing in confidence’ over signing Raheem Sterling from Manchester City — reports

Raheem Sterling is evidently ready to quit Manchester City after seven productive, trophy-filled seasons, and over the past few weeks, has been throwing out the transfer market vibes to see who might bite.

Chelsea have been aware of the situation, and have reportedly gone from “monitoring” to “weighing up” and are now “growing in confidence”. I guess we’re hungry for some transfers.

As per a “club source” from The Athletic’s Simon Johnson, “the only stumbling block” is the transfer fee. The “only” stumbling block!? That seems like a pretty major stumbling block! Meanwhile, we’ve got some source sauce from old Alfredo Pedullà as well, who chimes in with his “hot days”. Now the transfer window can truly begin!

The Athletic adds that because Sterling has only one year left on his contract, that makes him available at a “cut-price fee”, so perhaps Manchester City are ready to climb down from their previously reported £50-60m asking price, which seems quite uncut to me. Gianluca Di Marzio claims “around £35m”, which is a tastier cut indeed.

Sterling could certainly add some Premier League-proven quality to the squad, but seems like a bit of a redundant move and a minor upgrade at best given the current options available in attack, not including Romelu Lukaku.