Chelsea’s £300k a week dead-weight wants to stay “prove any critics wrong” says exclusive from top insider | OneFootball

Earlier today we wrote about Romelu Lukaku and Chelsea’s interest in selling him to Saudi Arabia.

As we explained, getting rid of the forward is vital for the Blues, and the earlier it can be done the better. They’re not going to be able to make any active moves in the transfer market until this major weight is off their books.

There is another player they would dearly love to shift, for the same reasons: Raheem Sterling. He didn’t cost as much as Lukaku did up front, but his £300,000 a week reported wages are a colossal drag on the wage bill, and the club’s attempts to get salaries under control all look rather silly while this elephant sits in the room.

He’s not only being paid a lot, he’s also now barely getting in the team. Noni Madueke and Mykhailo Mudryk seem to have established themselves ahead of him in the pecking order, to say nothing of Cole Palmer.

Saudi Arabia would be a dream out for us here – who else can afford those wages? But it’s not looking likely, as Ben Jacobs explained in his exclusive today with Caughtoffside:

“Sterling remains committed to Chelsea, and is settled in London. But as a high earner at the club, it’s natural there will be speculation about a summer exit.

“Unless Sterling has a major U-turn, he’s going to resist an exit and try to prove any critics wrong. It hasn’t been an easy spell for him at Chelsea, but staying fit and having a run in the side could yet change all that.

“Links with Saudi, and Al-Hilal specifically, are wide of the mark according to my information. Sterling had a very informal approach from Saudi in summer 2023, but since then there has been no contact.

It looks like we’re going to have to work a little harder to get him off the books – or perhaps more likely, learn to live with that burden indefinitely.