Herzlich Willkommen Raheem

Chelsea has often managed to offload players to rivals who, on paper, looked like serious reinforcements and for whom tens of millions of euros were paid in transfer fees. But over the years, Stamford Bridge has also seen its fair share of naive decisions—signing so-called "burnt-out stars" and failing to get adequate returns on investment. One of the best examples is Raheem Sterling. He arrived three jears ago from Manchester City for nearly 60 million pounds after seven fantastic years at the Etihad, but he never managed to show even a glimpse of the class he once displayed there. An attempt to revive his career with a loan move to Arsenal failed, and now, after spending his entire career on the Island, he could go abroad for the first time.

There is no serious interest for him in the Premier League, nor any club willing to pay even a fraction of his 20,000,000 salary, which makes him the highest-paid player at Chelsea. The Athletic reported earlier today that Chelsea are hoping to get 25,000,000 in compensation, and that several Champions League clubs are interested in him. The BBC has meanwhile revealed that Bayer Leverkusen is among them. The former German champions made two big sales this June and earned over 200,000,000 in total. Florian Wirtz moved to Liverpool for 135,000,000, followed by Jeremie Frimpong, who brought in another 40 million.

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New coach Erik ten Hag now needs significant reinforcements to keep Bayer competitive with Bayern Munich, and Sterling has been marked as one of the key signings, along with Jarell Quansah, Malik Tillman, Ibrahim Maza, and Mark Flekken, among others. He would certainly be the most high-profile name in the squad. The money from Sterling's sale would be a welcome boost for Chelsea, as the club has earned 121,500,000 from outgoing transfers so far, but has spent nearly 100,000,000 more on signings.