Micah Richards wrote in his BBC Sport column that Manchester City should sign Daniel Sturridge to solve their striker crisis, saying: “Several clubs in the Premier League (missed) a trick by not signing him. I would include City in that, just to fill in while Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus are injured.”
Sturridge is a brilliant striker who’s had a fantastic career, but we shouldn’t try to bring him back. Richards is correct when he says a number of top-flight clubs should have looked at the 31-year-old, but I don’t believe he’s good enough to play for us.
As a professional senior footballer, Sturridge has played for Manchester City (32 games, 6 goals, 4 assists), Chelsea (96 games, 24 goals, 9 assists), Bolton Wanderers (12 games, 8 goals, 0 assists), Liverpool (160 games, 68 goals, 26 assists), West Bromwich Albion (6 games, 0 goals, 0 assists), Trabzonspor (16 games, 7 goals, 4 assists) and England (26 games, 8 goals, 0 assists).
The 6ft 1in striker has been prolific throughout his career, but his fitness has spiralled in recent years. Sturridge hasn’t amassed 1000 minutes of top-flight football in one season at any club since 2013/14. He accepted a £27k-per-week/£1.4m-a-year deal and £1.8m signing-on-fee at Trabzonspor last season, but we wouldn’t be able to rely on him because of his injury history.
We should have signed a third striker this summer, but I think we’re better off without Sturridge.
In other news, Manchester City should have signed Luis Suarez after Pep Guardiola’s revelation