39 minutes ago, Valpo said:

Not sure if taking Man City's cast-off is the route to becoming better than Man City.  

That said his goal contributions speak for themselves and his consistency should bring us closer.

I'm a bit shocked that they are willing to let him go in all honesty.

He's 27, not an injury prone player, so you would think he is now in the prime of his career. He's better than Grealish and contributed far more to City's success than most of their players and was still doing it last season even when he wasn't getting picked as often.

Grealish starting over him at times last season felt like they were trying to justify the money spent.

53 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

I'm a bit shocked that they are willing to let him go in all honesty.

He's 27, not an injury prone player, so you would think he is now in the prime of his career. He's better than Grealish and contributed far more to City's success than most of their players and was still doing it last season even when he wasn't getting picked as often.

Grealish starting over him at times last season felt like they were trying to justify the money spent.

Not sure that is the case. Pep played cancelo last year as lb or to be exact lw, hence whoever play that lw spot need to play like attacking midfielders rather than a winger which suit Grealish or foden more. 

I think this is a very good signing, probably would have been better last year than this year. 

There is little downside of this signing other than sterling age and mileage on his feet. He is clearly an upgrade over any of our winger, he is versatile enough to play both wing and at times cf.  He will fix our one on one problem while still give us far post run and run behind threat. 

The reason why I am not that excited because we still don't have cb. If sarr is our starting lcb we are f$%@$

 

8 hours ago, axman2526 said:

@Valerie now I see why @CaitlinCFC calls him a bully...

2 hours ago, Valpo said:

Not sure if taking Man City's cast-off is the route to becoming better than Man City.  

That said his goal contributions speak for themselves and his consistency should bring us closer.

Is he the same player without 2 “10s” behind him though? Guess we will soon find out.

By pure feeling I don't like this signing however if you look the rational of this whole deal it makes sense. 

18 hours ago, STATS said:

I probably have more of bond towards him due to also having Jamaican family and being brought up within the same area, but for me he defo isn't a man with a huge ego. He doesn't kick up a fuss or look for attention of media. Also he regularly provides assists as well as being a goal threat. I wouldn't say he is selfish at all. He gets so much abuse from fans since moving from the media darlings to Man City which has caused him to be labelled unfair names, when in reality he proved everyone wrong by going on to win several trophies and become a better player. Other than that his attitude has been first class. Always plays and when benched for Grealish, he didn't wine and continued to work hard to regain his place in the team. I think if people realised his story, they would realise how tough of upbringing he had to make it where he is now.

Brought up in St Raphael's not a million miles from me and where I went to school and I agree he hasn't got a big ego at all. He seems pretty quiet and down to earth he also bought 500 tickets for local kids when City played in a semi-final a couple of years ago.

Edited July 7, 20224 yr by bluehaze

Been sat in the weeds pulling my hair out with this window so far but hopefully IF we get Sterling over the line this week it will be a decent signing. However, I for one am not getting to enthusiastic TBH.  If you watched Sterling in the last few England games and City games, he's become wasteful and can rarely take on a defender and beat them, consequently losing the ball more often than not...we've got several of those players already in the squad.  I'll wait and see how and where he plays in TT's system before giving my final judgment. If TT plays the same boring sideways, back passing football as I watched last season I'm not sure Sterling or anyone else will help us get nearer to Liverpool and City, let alone even Spurs with the business they've done so far. 

11 hours ago, LongtimerLurker said:

...

I don't deny Sterling's qualities, the reasons I am critical of this transfer are mostly the reported conditions of it. I try to judge it more from an objective and holistic viewpoint and I tried to explain the reasons. Like everybody in this forum I want my favorite football club to improve and be successful.

I think one of the biggest weaknesses in how the club is run is how we act financialwise on the transfer market and our wage structure, to me it seems like the club lacks some logical direction in that dimension. With the new ownership announced I hoped maybe the financially careless behaviour that we saw with the many premium priced flops in the last years would stop. Not that I think Sterling will be one too, but with Chelsea you never know and the fact that the first first team transfer of the new era will be one in which we overpay again is bad optics I would say.

This it isn't your money so why do you care argument I don't understand. I mean finances are an important topic in football, which in my opinion should be even talked about more in public, so solutions to the errors in the system can be made.

If we make Sterling our top earner on 300k+ a week, why shouldn't Mount or James try to match his wages when we try to negotiate new contracts with them. I mean if we look at last seasons performances both of them were top performers in our team and they are on an upward trajectory. But for example Lukaku "earned" more than double of both of them combined and Werner almost as much. So if they perform on an equal Level to Sterling or outperform him, which could happen, how are we going to negotiate wages with them if they demand equal pay to him? Should we then just pay up?

I mean one can hardly say that we pay on a performance metric with the lack of balance in our wage structure anyway, it seems more like negotiated gambling wins for most players, but the point I think is clear that if we don't put some principles in order at this club our wage structure will probably completely explode, which isn't sustainable and ultimately leads to a negative development. I mean we even got extremely lucky that Roman waived the debt we had to him and this in my opinion should be realized.

If the deal does go through, it's a win for us and lose for City. He scored goals every season, City didn't have to sign Grealish to take game time off Sterling, but they did and you couldn't have a 100M player on bench every other week. Why wasn't him involved in those big games, part of it could be Pep tried to be too clever, every year he does something ridiculous in the big knock out games and get beat. He will cost a lot, but even if we could afford to wait a year for him, there's no guarantee he will sign for us. We will probably miss out top 4 if we don't invest heavily.

3 hours ago, bluehaze said:

Brought up in St Raphael's not a million miles from me and where I went to school and I agree he hasn't got a big ego at all. He seems pretty quiet and down to earth he also bought 500 tickets for local kids when City played in a semi-final a couple of years ago.

I remember when he was around 14 years old or so and he was playing in a school game against my school. He was at QPR then. Few months later I saw him on TV playing ofr England U16 in some victory shield game and then there was news speculating about him being the youngest player to feature the league for QPR against Sheffield United but then their manager got sacked and that never happened. Then few weeks later he was off to Liverpool. So yeah it is amazing seeing the progress he has made. He also paid for 550 tickets for students from his old secondary school to attend FA Cup semi final around 2/3 years ago and regularly supports the community. I knew his fiance from a young kid too. A shame she probably wouldn't remember me now 😒 😆

 

5 hours ago, Bob stark said:

Not sure that is the case. Pep played cancelo last year as lb or to be exact lw, hence whoever play that lw spot need to play like attacking midfielders rather than a winger which suit Grealish or foden more. 

Grealish was dogsh*t last season. Most of the season he would run to the penalty area and play 5 yard pass backwards. 

10 minutes ago, Blue2 said:

I don't deny Sterling's qualities, the reasons I am critical of this transfer are mostly the reported conditions of it. I try to judge it more from an objective and holistic viewpoint and I tried to explain the reasons. Like everybody in this forum I want my favorite football club to improve and be successful.

I think one of the biggest weaknesses in how the club is run is how we act financialwise on the transfer market and our wage structure, to me it seems like the club lacks some logical direction in that dimension. With the new ownership announced I hoped maybe the financially careless behaviour that we saw with the many premium priced flops in the last years would stop. Not that I think Sterling will be one too, but with Chelsea you never know and the fact that the first first team transfer of the new era will be one in which we overpay again is bad optics I would say.

This it isn't your money so why do you care argument I don't understand. I mean finances are an important topic in football, which in my opinion should be even talked about more in public, so solutions to the errors in the system can be made.

If we make Sterling our top earner on 300k+ a week, why shouldn't Mount or James try to match his wages when we try to negotiate new contracts with them. I mean if we look at last seasons performances both of them were top performers in our team and they are on an upward trajectory. But for example Lukaku "earned" more than double of both of them combined and Werner almost as much. So if they perform on an equal Level to Sterling or outperform him, which could happen, how are we going to negotiate wages with them if they demand equal pay to him? Should we then just pay up?

I mean one can hardly say that we pay on a performance metric with the lack of balance in our wage structure anyway, it seems more like negotiated gambling wins for most players, but the point I think is clear that if we don't put some principles in order at this club our wage structure will probably completely explode, which isn't sustainable and ultimately leads to a negative development. I mean we even got extremely lucky that Roman waived the debt we had to him and this in my opinion should be realized.

I think that's very fair mate, you make some really good points especially regarding wage structure and the future of the club in that regard going forward. The best way I see it is with reference to any other job in any other sector.

What we often forget with footballers is whilst their job titles (footballer) may be the same throughout the dressing room (not including captain, vice captains etc.) they are not all the same. Sterling doesn't just come in as another average Joe footballer/or even starter. Whether we as Chelsea fans agree or not he is coming in to this team to be the guy. 

This is a significant factor in determining his wage, it shouldn't mean every new signing gets a high wage. Yet we are talking about a marquee signing here (at least in the board's, Sterling's and Tuchel's eyes), whether we can all agree or not.

The man will want a wage that reflects this status not just in the team, but in the league also. There have been reports from a few sources claiming the dressing room has no issue with his wage. Believing he has earned this, which suggests a certain level of professional mutual respect.

We had reports early on into the takeover about how they plan to restructure the wage system as clearly it's not working. Todd doesn't want players on high wages that aren't even starting or playing regularly. So I wouldn't be too concerned just yet. I'm personally waiting to see the conclusion of our first window before making any judgements. 

Finally and this for me is the most significant aspect of his transfer. We have only been quoted the supposed wage figure, we are yet to know the true amount. If it is £300k~+ its most likely this is before tax, and after he's looking at around £200k per week maybe slightly less or more give or take. 

The thing we fans forget when it comes to players salaries these days, even regarding these exuberant figures. That is what they as players are worth. Tv deals, match day revenue, sponsorships. It's such a lucrative business, the agents and players don't always just come up with these demands from nowhere. They calculate the players value, in reference to their ability, their marketability and even compare with other similar players across the market.

If the players don't get a bigger cut of the pie the extra revenue just goes into the back pocket of the owners anyway.

There are interestingly multiple scientific studies suggesting teams with higher wages on average tend to perform better than those that are not. It sounds like common sense, but we know this isn't always the case, nor does this prove cause and effect.

Yet if you can acquire better players, and motivate them with a good wage it would suggest they would be further motivated to succeed. At least that has always been our model since Roman came in and despite constant hiccups it's worked fairly well despite the most recent crop of recruits. 

 

6 hours ago, Munkworth said:

Excited to see Sterling in a proper blue

Good stat on talksport just now. Only one player managed by Guardiola has better combined assists and goals, Messi. Also since Guardiolas arrived at City Sterling has the most combined assists and goals.

2 hours ago, axman2526 said:

15 minutes ago, Munkworth said:

11 hours ago, dkw said:

Good stat on talksport just now. Only one player managed by Guardiola has better combined assists and goals, Messi. Also since Guardiolas arrived at City Sterling has the most combined assists and goals.

As long as Tuchel does not play him exclusively as 10 he will flourish straight away. 

From what i can see or not see to be exact, this thing still isn't bl00dy done is it? Why is it every one seems gets their business sorted and yet we just seem to drag on interminably.

I am now at the stage of treating everything as pure speculation and BS until the player is holding the shirt for photos

On 07/07/2022 at 09:26, CFCCAN said:

Been sat in the weeds pulling my hair out with this window so far but hopefully IF we get Sterling over the line this week it will be a decent signing. However, I for one am not getting to enthusiastic TBH.  If you watched Sterling in the last few England games and City games, he's become wasteful and can rarely take on a defender and beat them, consequently losing the ball more often than not...we've got several of those players already in the squad.  I'll wait and see how and where he plays in TT's system before giving my final judgment. If TT plays the same boring sideways, back passing football as I watched last season I'm not sure Sterling or anyone else will help us get nearer to Liverpool and City, let alone even Spurs with the business they've done so far. 

We keep hearing about Spurs' supposed great business but I bet if we signed Lenglet and Richarlison and sold Colwill and Broja to make space for them they'd be absolute outrage.

2 minutes ago, Argo said:

We keep hearing about Spurs' supposed great business but I bet if we signed Lenglet and Richarlison and sold Colwill and Broja to make space for them they'd be absolute outrage.

Spurs fans and supporters would sell their own nans for a title challenge let alone to win something, Doesn't surprise me, Worry about long term plans once they win something, After all, They've had to sit back and cringe watching us rip and roar all over the shop for almost 20yrs!

If we're leaving for America tomorrow I expect surely the deal is announced today. The dude's already sold his house, I assume there's nothing stopping him from coming provided all this time in the background they were sorting out the necessary arrangements for him to be able to travel with the rest of the squad. With all that's need to be done is make the payment and public announcement.

5 minutes ago, Argo said:

We keep hearing about Spurs' supposed great business but I bet if we signed Lenglet and Richarlison and sold Colwill and Broja to make space for them they'd be absolute outrage.

True, but Richarlisaon excepted, who i confess i am a bit meh over, Bringing in Bissouma, Perisic and possibly Lenglet is surely improving them and i am not sure who they are pushing out to make space. That Bergwijn fella wasn't tearing it up and I didn't think they had any great kids beign provented form comign through. In fact i thought that right back lad they had come though, Tanganga ? (Spelling), was a bit of a bomb scare anyway.