Raheem Sterling’s future at Manchester City is likely to be talked about all summer until his situation is resolved, either by City cashing in before his contract expires in 2023 or by them tying him down to a new deal.
The 27-year-old is in the same place he was last season – unhappy at being left out of big games and frustrated at the constant rotation in the Premier League. Sterling requested a move away from City last summer and may do the same thing this summer amid interest from European giants.
Noel Whelan disagrees, however, and says the England international might be convinced to stay because of Erling Haaland. He told Football Insider: “It’s not guaranteed for any Man City player that you’ll be getting minutes – they’re all internationals.
“Sterling has one year left of his contract (and) wants to play more minutes, (but) is his job finished? Because they haven’t won the Champions League yet. Now that you’ve got Haaland in there, you wouldn’t want to walk away from that opportunity to play with him and go closer to winning the Champions League.”
Haaland signing for City is a big deal. The Sky Blues had to beat off competition from a host of clubs to procure his signature and now have a striker on their books who scored 86 goals and made 23 assists in 89 games for Borussia Dortmund (2020 – 2022).
City fell short in the Champions League with a semi-final exit, but their chances of success in Europe would be greater with Haaland in the squad. Time will tell if Sterling sees it that way, or if he just needs to move on.
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