The 2022-2023 season looked like a fiasco and the current year hardly gives any more positive signals. Despite hundreds of millions of euros invested over the past year and a half, Chelsea are not getting by. Tenth in the Premier League after eleven days, the team coached by Mauricio Pochettino, little helped by injuries, has only gleaned four small victories in the league, including two against teams at the bottom of the hole (Luton Town and Burnley). Already falling 12 points behind the lead, occupied by Manchester City, the Blues therefore seem to be heading towards a new difficult season. Recently questioned about his team’s starving record, the Londoners’ coach nevertheless tried to justify this dark period. “At the moment I think we are a young team, a young team means there were too many changes during the summer due to circumstances and we are suffering”.
A suffering experienced head-on by a certain Raheem Sterling. And for good reason. If the former Liverpool and Manchester City winger is somewhat afloat within this London team with 4 goals and 2 assists in 13 matches in all competitions, his interesting performance is not enough to get the Blues out of the storm. Worse still, the failure of the collective of residents of Stamford Bridge seems to directly impact the future in selection of the 28-year-old player. Once again snubbed by Gareth Southgate to face Malta and North Macedonia during qualifying for Euro 2024, the England international with 82 caps (20 goals) has not tasted the Three Lions jersey since the quarter-final. 2022 World Cup final against the Blues. Absent during the last five meetings, the 1m70 right-hander is therefore surely paying for the negative dynamics of his club, to which must be added the strong competition for his position.
Gareth Southgate does not close the door!
More than ever in danger a few months before Euro 2024, organized in Germany from June 14 to July 14, Sterling certainly still has time to reverse the trend, especially since his coach recalled this Thursday , that the door remained “100% open” for a possible return under the English tunic. However, the trend is hardly to its advantage and the difficulties currently encountered in the club do not bode well for the future. Accustomed to playing leading roles for around twenty years, Chelsea are now heading towards a second blank season. A dreaded outcome which would not fail to prove difficult, especially given the expenses incurred since the arrival of new owner Todd Boehly. To change the situation, the person concerned therefore knows what remains to be done.
By embodying the renewal of a team in full doubt, while maintaining a statistical line worthy of a contender for selection, Sterling would certainly open the doors to a return to the Three Lions. “She is open 100%, not only for Raheem, but also for other players who are not part of this team, there is no doubt. He has played a crucial role in the journey we have made in recent years. But today the team is playing well and we had an exceptional victory against Italy. So who should we leave out? It’s as simple as that”specified Southgate in this sense.
An ambition far from being acquired, but necessary to hope to relive the joys of the selection. For this, we will already have to rely on the clemency of the English Federation… Filmed throwing an object into the crowd last Monday, during his team’s victory against Tottenham, Sterling is now under threat of suspension . In this perspective, the Daily Mail specifies that the incident is currently the subject of an investigation by the authority. To add insult to injury, the sequence, at the origin of the controversy, was published on the social networks… of the London club. Before moving towards a bright future, Raheem Sterling therefore has several problems to manage, not the least of which.
