Liverpool wanted to sign Raheem Sterling this summer, but were beaten to it by Chelsea.
That’s according to The Mirror, who claim in an exclusive that Liverpool were one of the sides to lose out on the England man.
The Reds were reportedly joined in their interest by Real Madrid, PSG, Bayern Munich and Barcelona. But Sterling opted for Chelsea, reportedly due to Thomas Tuchel’s ‘personal touch’ in the negotiations.
It’s claimed that Chelsea even offered ‘improved terms’ on Sterling’s reported £300k-a-weel deal at Manchester City.
Impossible for many different reasons
Given the kind of numbers being talked about here, it feels desperately unlikely that Liverpool would have bothered going near Sterling.
Yes, he’s a fantastic player and still of a good age at twenty-seven. He has also claimed to still love Liverpool (TalkSPORT), despite leaving the club under a cloud in 2015.
But even with those things in mind, the wages on offer coupled with the relatively high £45m fee makes it a non-starter.
That’s before you even factor in the possibility of City selling to Liverpool.
In an ideal world, they probably wouldn’t sell Sterling to Chelsea, either. But the idea of strengthening Tuchel’s team is likely more palatable than allowing their biggest direct rival to take an influential player.
Strengthen Chelsea he will, though. Sterling’s star may have fallen somewhat, but he still scored 17 goals last season. That would have made him The Blues top scorer.
It’s an interesting move, and it would have been fascinating to see him back at Anfield. It was simply never going to happen, though.
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