Mauricio Pochettino is confident Raheem Sterling will be a vital cog for Chelsea next season.
Raheem Sterling, who’s now 28, is actually one of the most senior players in the Blues dressing room when you check out their very young squad.
Signed for £50million (Daily Mail) from Manchester City last year, Sterling’s debut season in Chelsea colours never really lifted off like many expected. The England attacker ended up with nine goals in 38 games across all competitions.
However, the 28-year-old winger will now get a clean slate that Mauricio Pochettino has joined as the club’s new head coach.
Pochettino has spoken very highly about Sterling during a pre-match press conference for this weekend’s pre-season friendly against Brighton.
“I think he’s an important player for us. He’s in our plan. He can provide to the team many different things. We are confident we can get the best from him to help the team to achieve what we want,” Pochettino said, as quoted by Football London.
We’ve always been confident Sterling would improve during his second season with the club. That belief is now even stronger that Pochettino is in the manager’s dugout, too.
If he can recapture his peak Manchester City form, Chelsea’s frontline will look a lot different next term and be much more potent.
Journalist Ben Jacobs claimed on Twitter last night that Sterling is “fully committed” to Chelsea and there’s no plans to sell him in this summer transfer window.
We really feel like the quick wide player could be an extremely effective individual moving forward in Pochettino’s preferred 4-2-3-1 formation.
It seems people are quick to overlook the fact Sterling’s got 115 Premier League goals and counting in his career.
There’s plenty more to come next season!