During the early portions of Euro 2020, England winger Raheem Sterling absolutely carried his team. One of the best performers at the European championships this summer, one would naturally think that he would be impossible to drop at his club this season.
The opposite has been true, actually, as the 26-year-old has really struggled for playing time so far this season. A team overloaded with wingers, City went out and got Jack Grealish from Aston Villa this summer, making him the first 100 million GBP player.
Manchester City vs Burnley FYIs:
Kick-off time: 3 PM GMT, 16 October Saturday
Manchester City Starting XI Prediction: go here
Manchester City Team News: Go here
Form Guide (All Competitions): Manchester City (DWWLD) Burnley (LLWDD)
Adding Grealish to the mix made already cutthroat competition in the City attack that much more competitive, and Sterling often finds himself the odd man out. As such, he understandably wants to move on.
“If there was an opportunity to go somewhere else, (for more game time), I would be open to it at this moment in time,” he said at the FT Business of Sport US summit.
“As I said, football is the most important thing to me – challenges that I have set myself from a young age and dreams as well, to play abroad.”
“As an English player all I know is the Premier League and I have always had something down (in me) that maybe one day I would love to play abroad to see how I would come up against that challenge. I’m not a person that’s going to complain. I’ve not tried to make it a bigger deal than it actually is.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune.
He co-hosts the After Extra Time podcast. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.