Raheem Sterling of Manchester City celebrates after scoring a goal to make it 1-0 during the Premier League match between Manchester City and Chelsea at Etihad Stadium on May 8, 2021 in Manchester, United Kingdom.
While the game against Bayern Munich reiterated their defensive problems, Barcelona’s issues in attack were exposed as well as they struggled to string goal chances for Memphis Depay and Luuk de Jong. As such, they are eyeing moves for forwards in the winter transfer window.
According to SPORT, Barcelona have set their sights on a loan move for Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling. The winger is looking for more minutes and would be happy to make the move.
This is not the first time Sterling has been linked to Barcelona. The Englishman was, apparently, close to completing the move in the summer, but City’s crashed deals for Harry Kane and Cristiano Ronaldo coupled with Barça’s financial issues prevented the deal from happening.
Barcelona’s technical director Mateu Alemany is keen on the move and is working on pushing the deal to fruition.
After an underwhelming 2020/21, Sterling has not been able to retain his place in the starting XI for Pep Guardiola’s City. So far, he’s only started one game for them – against Tottenham Hotspur on opening day.
Guardiola has taken a preference for Jack Grealish in his team, and is likely to pursue a striker in the winter transfer window, which would further push down the former Liverpool star in the pecking order.
Barcelona, on the other hand, could do a lot with Sterling’s pace and directness in their team. With Ousmane Dembele and Ansu Fati out with injuries, the team severely lacks pace on the break and six months of Sterling could do the team a world of good.
