The Most Chronically Under-Appreciated Player In England

When Barcelona officials approached Manchester City ahead of this year’s transfer window the word was that it was about Raheem Sterling.

Since the start of 2021, reports have suggested the England star has been unhappy about his lack of minutes and wanted a move.

In the run-up to the summer’s European Championships, there were doubts whether the Londoner would start for the national team.

England coach Gareth Southgate was facing questions would about bending his ‘rule’ on players starting regularly for their clubs.

“He hadn’t played so much towards the end of the season, but did play the [Champions League] final and he was hungry and sharp and ready to go and that’s how I’ve seen him,” Southgate explained not long after the squad joined up. 

“I know he enjoys his football with us. I’ve not sensed a player that is low or unenergised. I’ve seen absolutely the opposite,” he added.

Southgate was vindicated in his faith in Sterling, who went on to be England’s most influential player at the tournament.

But when he got back to Manchester, something still wasn’t right.

By November 2021 he’d started just 3 games and talk that he was leaving the Etihad ramped up once more.

Publications, like 90min.com, were claiming “club sources” had briefed them about a conversation between Sterling and Pep Guardiola where he’d told the coach he wanted to join Barcelona.

However, when the Catalan delegation arrived the man they wanted to prise from City was not Sterling, it was Ferran Torres.

As the window progressed there was little sign they would return to do so.

The subsequent business conducted by Barcelona, bringing in Adama Traore and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, suggested that, for some reason, Sterling had fallen down their list of priorities.

Fortunately for Sterling things changed at Manchester City during that period and he got a run of games.

Not that the North Londoner was getting carried away with this, the combination of a heavy Christmas fixture list and a Covid outbreak on the squad meant that the competition for places was not quite what it normally is.

Also playing on his mind must have been the fact City spent $135 million that summer on a player who plays the same position as him when they bought Jack Grealish from Aston Villa.

However, since he’s got back in the team around Christmas Sterling has been edging back towards his best form.

He followed by winning a crucial penalty against Brentford on Wednesday [February 9] with a perfect hat-trick vs Norwich City on the weekend [February 12].

The performance drew praise from Guardiola who also subtly alluded to the idea that Sterling needed the boost.

“For his confidence, it will be massive,” he told the media post-game “The first goal is brilliant – when Raheem executes without thinking.

“I am so happy for him because strikers need to score for confidence for the next games. He had a fantastic game, especially after the goal he was confident and more aggressive [and] direct.

“He has been an incredibly important player in all these seasons, with all the goals and assists, and when he has confidence he’s a really, really important player.”

Chronically under-appreciated

Sterling’s confidence, or lack thereof, was a theme repeated throughout last year.

In September, when he was not playing for City, pundit Rio Ferdinand suggested that it was the lack of game time that was the cause.

“It’s only because he’s been taken out of the team that he’s lost confidence,” Ferdinand told his Vibe with Five show.

“He was on fire, he was producing, he was the go-to guy when they needed a goal for so many years. All of a sudden, he’s in the wilderness. I’m just baffled by it; I don’t understand it.”

Many others have also struggled to understand where the player known for popping up with late and decisive strikes for City had gone.

His excellent performances with England in the summer only brought more confusion about the situation at City; if he could do this with the national team why was he struggling to get in at club level?

Rumors of a bust-up between Sterling and Guardiola began in March 2021, but they were denied by Sterling on Twitter.

“Some crazy rumors on socials today,” he wrote at the time “That’s absolutely FALSE.”

A far simpler explanation for why Sterling doesn’t shine, in the way that he did when City notched 100 points in 2017/18 or won the domestic treble in 2018/19, is that the team plays differently now.

In those two earlier iterations of Guardiola’s City, the front three was often Sterling, Sane and Aguero, the soccer it played was more dynamic and ‘vertical’-meaning they attacked directly with speed.

This identity has been shed since 2020, both in the changes to personnel and in the style of play.

Now City’s game is all about control, they attack slower and more methodically.

Guardiola has even said that he believes only Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne can play in that high-tempo direct manner his side used to and which he now feels offers too many opportunities for the opposition.

Manchester City has achieved success through this pass-heavy style of play, but it makes it harder for individuals to shine in the same manner.

For England, Sterling was unshackled he had more freedom and therefore was more eye-catching.

But the perhaps biggest factor is perception. 

The achievements of Raheem Sterling are often overlooked or undervalued.

This season he passed the 100 goal mark in the Premier League which, in addition to the over 50 assists he’s contributed, means he’s averaged a goal involvement in every other game he’s played.

Those are impressive numbers, more so when you consider that he’s won three league titles and remains an influential player at the best team in the country seven years since joining them.

But these facts are often overlooked because the narrative around Sterling has been constantly muddied by the cloud of negative media coverage he’s faced since he was a teenager.

For years there have been bizarre attacks from the British press. Critical stories about him buying his mother a house, a suit from a discount retailer or (and this genuinely happened) a misinterpretation of the meaning of a tattoo on his leg.

So pervasive is this coverage that most of the positive coverage of Sterling also references criticism, whether it’s the BBC describing his journey “from scapegoat to national icon” or GQ discussing how he’s “proved his critics wrong.” 

The negative coverage has poisoned things to such an extent that, even when viewed in pure soccer terms, his achievements are rarely given the status they deserve.

You only have to look at how Harry Kane, a man whose list of titles is far inferior to Sterling’s, is always perceived in the context of his greatest achievements like his back-to-back top scorer records in the mid-2010s.

Media outlets have no issue understanding that for the England captain form might be temporary, but class is permanent.

With Sterling the narrative is wearily familiar, he’s proving his critics wrong again. That needs to change.