Have Arsenal made a mistake signing Raheem Sterling?
Arsenal signed Raheem Sterling on loan from Chelsea in the dying hours of Transfer Market Deadline Day, but did we make a late mistake?
The Winger is far from being in his prime form which he achieved before moving to Stamford Bridge, after being at Manchester City for seven years between 2015 and 2022. During his spell at the Etihad he was a constant goal threat and a player to be wary of for all Premier League defences. Whilst at City he found the back of the net 131 times in 339 matches rounding up 73 assists in seven seasons according to Transfer Market which isn’t bad going.
However since he’s become a Blue in the last two years he’s only scored 19 times with a mere 12 assists. If Arsenal are looking for an instant impact in attack and a player who can definitely turn the tables of fortune (not that we’ve got off to a bad start of course), then I fear that the current Sterling is not quite the fit which the Gunners are looking for!
Sterling was a constant fixture of Gareth Southgate’s England team for nearly eight years, until this Summer for the Euros, despite his 82 previous caps for The Three Lions. It’s fair to say that perhaps Sterling isn’t the player he once was for club and country going back four years ago, when he racked up 20 goals during the 2019/20 season. This is something he’s struggled to do at Chelsea recently in over double that time.
Last season he upped his goal tally from the previous year to eight from six and adding one more assist from three to four. Considering Arsenal are looking to finally claim their first Premiership in two decades, they need more than this!
Age can only be on your side for so long, and Sterling isn’t getting any younger whilst currently 29 and approaching his 30s where most players’ careers start to drop off. We’ve seen this with Gabriel Jesus who’s only two years younger and has picked up multiple injuries at Arsenal in the past two years To say the least, Sterling has already started to fall into a patch of decline in his footballing career.
It’s easier said than done to sit here wagging our fingers at Arsenal, telling them who they should and shouldn’t be signing, but just because Sterling was once one of the best players in the World doesn’t mean that he still is now with the stats showing his decline.
Liam Harding
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Well I sure hope we aren’t paying his full wages, that’s over 15 million a year. Otherwise I don’t mind. But our squad is still paper thin.
Arsenal is not paying his full wages according to reports…
1. He was on £325k a year at Chelsea.
2. Arsenal refused to pay a loan fee.
3. Sterling reduced his wages to make the move happen.
4. Arsenal are covering less than half of the reduced wages.
On that basis, a one year loan with no obligations, no fee and wages less than Eddie was getting, who was sold for £30m… seems ok to me.
* £325k a week sorry!
We were supposed to up the quality of our starting 11 and add solid back up, I honestly feel it’s another wasted opportunity to catch up with City. We just needed a little instant improvement but I don’t see it. Steling may still be half decent but is long past his best, Merino took ages and is now out till Christmas, Neto was a desperate last minute grab. It’s only Calafiori who looks like will boost our team, but at the same time we have loads of players who can play LB still on the books (Zinchenko, Timber, Tomiyasu, Tierney, Kiwior, plus youth options). We prioritised the wrong areas, again. Edu really isn’t impressing me.
Definitely not a good signing. With all the good players Arsenal was linked with, to end up with Sterling isn’t good enough for a title chasing club.
To me this wasn’t a planned buying but one just to cover the backside.
I’ve noted in seasons past the many players Arsenal gets linked to and how often we make desperate signings as the windows close.
Discarded by Man City and Chelsea, can’t be a league/cup winner for Arsenal
My Gunners family happy to contribute here. I am seeing Sterling going to become a fresh star here because the environment is as conducive as Man City were his career blossom. Chelsea as a football club is a difficult place to progress recently due to frequent changes of coaches. We will enjoy Stirling.
Brilliant signing, imo. That’s after thinking of it and get the facts of the situation.
Firstly, we didn’t pay any fee to get him. We are paying only a fraction of his wages (less than his parent club,) and he has worked with Mikel before.
It is totally risk free. At this point, he is obviously not a starter, but if he comes on in games and chips in with 5+ goals over the course of the season, that will be a better output than Reiss has given us. Would you consider that a win?
Or if he goes on to dislodge Martinelli from the starting line up with some sparkling performances…. would you still consider it a bad deal?
I think it is a brilliant move whether it works well or not, we really aren’t losing much. The end of the season will tell you is right or wrong, though.
To be fair, Chelsea have been a mess throughout his time there, so it’s difficult to say whether he’s really declined, or just been stuck in a bad situation. I think he’s shown at times that he’s still capable of being a good player in fits and starts, but Chelsea have kept changing priorities and haven’t really given him much to work with. I think we’ve probably signed a high quality player here, but we’ll have to wait and see.
It’s easy to say that Sterling is on the decline, however i’d suggest we zoom out and look at the bigger picture.
Personally, when i look at the Sterling situation over his City & Chelsea careers, one word leaps out at me: STABILITY.
As City, Sterling had stability in every aspect. He was part of a fantastic footballing side which played to his strengths. A side who valued him and all that he brought to them as a player and valuable squad member. Not only that, he had the full support of his Manager, and more so, the Asst Manager at the time – Mikel Arteta, who has been credited into turning Sterling into such an attacking force.
And now let’s move to the Sterling at Chelsea. Did he get stability at all? I think not. In actual fact, in his time there, he played under 4 different permanent managers – all with differing styles. Also, let’s not forget that Chelsea has gone through significantly turbulent times since he’s been there. All those things have clearly effected him, as it would for any player.
A footballer’s game is very much based on self belief, form and how they are loved by the fans and by their club and team mates. At City, he had all those things. At Chelsea, he had far fewer.
So now he’s moved to Arsenal, i actually believe it’s a masterstroke.
He’s reunited with Arteta – the man who turned him into such a potent attacking force. He’ll be given all the stability he needs in a footballing side that plays his brand of football, plus he’ll have the unwavering support and belief of Arteta and all his team mates too.
Not only that, but for Arsenal, they jow have another serial winner on their hands and in the dressing room too. Add that to the likes of Zinchenko, Jesus and Jorginho – and think of the effect that will have on the other players around them.
If Arteta can get Sterling back to who he was at City, then we’ve just pulled off an absolute masterstroke.
Thoughts?
That is certainly the hope. Arteta has worked with him before and has played against him, so he knows what he’s getting.
Liam
Stats can be a bit like what we do in the Dunney. Smell. The are good in a macro sense, but in micro situations they are you know what, and to use them to denigrate Sterling will prove to be silly. He has now got re-united with Arteta. The stats are about to have the chain pulled on them.
Nobody here (or on any other Arsenal fan site) can say with any certainty whether Sterling’s signing is good, bad or indifferent.
All he’s done so far it put on an Arsenal shirt (albeit a blue one, unfortunately) but it’s only his performance on the pitch that counts in the end.
As I understand it, Chelsea is paying a big % of his huge salary and there’s no loan fee involved so, if correct, that’s a reasonable deal in my opinion. Of course, if he’s a total disaster even that deal won’t be any good, but if he can do the job expected then it will look like a good piece of Edu business (particularly as Edu has said that it was a very last-minute decision, not planned).
Obviously I hope so
He hasn’t been playing as well as he used too recently but hopefully he will play very well for us this season. With Martinelli not at his best, we will need Sterling
I was hoping for a prolific CF but you can’t always get what you want lol
Only time will tell…