Part of my thinking here is that we haven’t ‘completed’ our rebuild of the squad totally. Ideally, I think we’re still looking for another midfielder and a striker. I’d rather we focus our attention/resources on these positions before making improvements to positions we already have filled with good players.
If the supposed £45M + £300K+ on Sterling stalls us from dropping an adequate amount of money for a striker like Vlahovic or Isak, that makes no sense to me.
Whilst I have no qualms paying large fortunes for players, we know we can’t operate like the two Mancs and Chelsea. Liverpool made a squad out of fairly low fee transfers and added the expensive pieces after assembling their team.
We’re not far off having a proper squad to then be jumping at signings like this.
I think Sterling is a transformative signing. We are desperately lacking quality on the flanks and both Saka and Pepe fall far short of consistent output that we need.
He gets taken out of the City team when he plays for England and he still produces. Sterling is a top tier talent and when someone like that is on the market at 26, you don’t turn that opportunity down.
Shaw was the best LB in the league last year and Maguire has always been an average CB who was not ever a top tier player. Sterling is an elite talent even if the system makes him better, he’s still in the top tier of PL talent.
He’d be immense here and his versatility across the front line would be welcome
Sterling made his name at Liverpool and improved at city.
Plays well and regular for England. Never failed on any stage or looked out of place with players like Suarez,Aguero, Kane ,etc.
The Times are saying that Sterling will not sign a new contract and that he is open to a loan move to Barcelona until he is sold/runs down his contract.
I get that some want that statement signing especially from a player that is a known quantity and has played to a high level previously.
However, I don’t see him having an impact for us like Alexis did or being that kind of talismanic player that Salah or Mane are for Liveprool which would necessitate that kind of expenditure.
In a top team surrounded by A grade fellow players and a top coach it could be fine but that’s if he’s not on the slide.
Absolutely like most things in life every signing comes with an element of risk and it’s smart to alleviate risk wherever possible.
I’m not sure I’m feeling that tone in regard to this transfer however, it’s speaking to me much more as being contrarian for the sake of it, which I find is the status quo when it comes to much of our dealings lately. I for one would see this an objectively ambitious transfer by The Arsenal and something that would be difficult to argue that it would be outside our best interests as a club looking for success in the next few seasons. Even if Sterling were to come here and flop it wouldn’t change the fact that this deal was pursued with the best interests at heart.
I genuinely can’t think of too many names out there that would be as good for the club as signing Sterling, anyone who doesn’t see the potential is going out of their way to look at the deal through a skewed lense.
I think inside the fanbase it would definitely be seen as ambitious.
I’d be prepared for a lot of scoffing from the wider soccer media about how we’re picking up castoffs from City because it fits a neat narrative.
I am torn on it. He’s a player I have admired for a while and I think it’s gone stale for him at City. As much as I personally discount the importance of an English national team presence at Arsenal, having him around would be good for ESR, Saka and etc.
On the other hand, we need a striker and probably two strikers. Not saying Dušan Vlahovic is the answer but if we miss on a prime striker target in order to sign Sterling (assuming we’re still playing the same system and aren’t planning on playing Sterling as the lone striker) it would be a risk.
But this isn’t like when I flipped a shit about signing Willian. If we sign him I’d be really pleased.