Raheem Sterling Chelsea breakthrough proves Thomas Tuchel right after Lionel Messi revelation

Many people assumed that the first signing of the Todd Boehly and Clearlake era would be the elongated chase for Sevilla’s Jules Kounde, but within weeks the odds have firmly shifted in a completely different direction.

At the time of writing, Raheem Sterling looks set to be the first statement addition on the men’s side during a busy summer. Maybe it feels symbolic that the first arrival of this window arguably looks to address the most problematic area for Thomas Tuchel.

Even with the need for bodies in defence, the final third confusion and underperformance is a headache that the supposed medicine of over £300m of investment since 2019 has done little to soothe.

Sterling is a noteworthy addition, firstly for his status within the Premier League and in English football. But also because Chelsea would be buying him off a domestic rival, a type of transfer that has felt a rarity in recent years.

It is pretty unique that a player of Sterling’s level and numbers would come available at a prime age instead of moving abroad to one of the big European heavyweights like Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern Munich.

As soon as links emerged, doubts arose over Sterling from fans. Maybe linked to the familiarity with him, that he’s a known quantity. There’s a high likelihood a lot of Chelsea fans will have a good knowledge of Sterling’s career so far, his breakthrough with Liverpool, the major move to City and his highs and lows at the international level with England.

There is little hidden with Sterling. Unlike the attacking targets Chelsea have invested in over recent years, there is naturally an allure to the player arriving from a foreign league. Even with the accessibility to watch Serie A, Ligue 1, The Bundesliga and La Liga, most supporters won’t watch those leagues week in, week out.

But that strategy has its flaws, as Chelsea have found very recently found out. Hakim Ziyech, Timo Werner, Kai Havertz and Christian Pulisic have all arrived from Holland and Germany, respectively and struggled in different ways.

Sterling shouldn’t offer the same issue. He has only known England’s top tier. He has grown up with its intensity, its physicality as a smaller player, and the demands of being an attacker for a top club. The numbers do not lie with Sterling.

He has missed chances and hit dips throughout his career, but goals are goals, and consistent ones have been hard to come by for Chelsea since the departures of Diego Costa and Eden Hazard.

109 league goals in 320 appearances. Since the 2017/18 campaign, where he netted 23 goals, only Jamie Vardy, Harry Kane and Mohamed Salah have more goals. Specific to Pep Guardiola, only Lionel Messi and Sergio Aguero have scored more goals for the Spaniard.

For combined goals and assists under Guardiola for top-flight teams, he sits above Kevin De Bruyne and only behind Messi with 186. He has created 250 chances in the last five seasons, only sitting behind Son Heung-Min, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Salah for non-penalty goals per 90 among wide attackers in the Premier League since 2015-16.

For whatever doubts people have, either referring to his age, his glaring misses, or his ability to reproduce these numbers away from City, they still showcase a consistently productive player.

In conversation with Tuchel, one would suspect Sterling in the German’s current system would occupy one of the two wider roles behind a central striker in the 3-4-2-1. However, Sterling is a wide forward. He typically likes to touch the byline, although he can prove effective when moving inside.

A trademark Sterling goal for club and country might be demeaned for its simplicity, but it showcases his elite anticipation inside the six-yard box, another trait you could argue few of Chelsea’s current cast of attackers greatly possess, apart from Pulisic.

With Reece James’ potential delivery and continued improvement from the right, should Sterling start on the opposite flank, it is not too far-fetched to assume both could form a quick connection, already playing together under Gareth Southgate for England.

Sterling isn’t just goals. His creativity on the final day of the Premier League season proved game-changing for City’s title hopes. Trailing 2-0 to Aston Villa with 15 minutes to play, Sterling charged to the byline and floated a ball to the back-post to find Ilkay Gundogan’s head to commence a dramatic comeback.

One of the best demonstrations of Sterling’s on-pitch leadership was probably his opener against Germany at the European Championships, another tense game perched on a knife-edge. Sterling took the game from a standstill and altered the tempo, showing his anticipation again inside the box and calmly slotting home a Luke Shaw cross.

A lot has gone wrong in Chelsea’s attack, and it is highly understandable that fans might be sceptical. But the evidence in front of us in June of 2022 illustrates a brilliant player, one who clearly desires a fresh start and, at this stage of his career, could provide part of the spark to resolve the biggest shortcoming of the Tuchel reign so far.