Sterling now gone with the same media people as Rashford.
As an aside, he is definitely leaving.
I’m struggling to see to where at the moment. Of those destinations that aren’t an active step down, the Spanish clubs are potless, the dippers would be an impossibility for obvious reasons, the rags already have Sancho, Rashford and the lady boy filling his preferred role and have other priorities anyway, which leaves who? Chelsea? Bayern?
If we‘ve learned one thing about Raheem over the last 3 or 4 years, it’s that he has very specific attributes and very specific weaknesses, and whilst Rio Ferdinand and some on this forum, don’t seem to want to acknowledge the existence of the latter, I’m not convinced any perspective clubs’ recruitment teams will…..unless they’re getting an absolute steal in respect of the asking price.
What would constitute an acceptable offer in the summer for a seasoned England international, who’s still only going to be 27? £50m, £60m, £70m, £80m? I’m not sure in the current Covid affected financial climate that we’d get such an offer from a club Raz would want to move to (ie offering Champions League football and guaranteed playing time). We barely scraped £40m for Leroy.
Personally, and despite what I view (rightly or wrongly) as relative shortcomings in his game, I’d still be sorry to see him go. He’s peak age, he’s English, he’s quick, he times his runs superbly, he has the ability to make things happen, he occupies opponents, and he very much affords us variety. On a good day (Liverpool away last season) he’s capable of shredding decent full backs, but on a bad day (United at home last season) he looks like a park player. If he was playing for any other team he’d probably be more universally appreciated, but in this current City team surrounded by players whose touch is exquisite (Bernie, Foden, Mahrez in particular), that lack of consistency is perhaps marking him out and making him the subject of unrealistic levels of criticism.
Whatever, I think he may be here for the remainder of his existing contract yet, for the reasons stated, and I think he may need to consider a step down if he wants guaranteed playing time, cos given his form for the last 18 months in comparison to what he was bringing to the party prior to that, a suitable offer for both player and club might not be forthcoming