Chelsea have been told that they paid too much for the transfer of Raheem Sterling from Manchester City last summer.
Writing in his column for Si & Dan Talk Chelsea, as quoted by the Metro, former Blues defender Frank Leboeuf hit out at Sterling, describing him as ‘clumsy’ and insisting he never looked worth the money the west London giants paid for him.
Sterling was a star player for many years at Man City, but it’s fair to say he hasn’t made the same impact in his brief time at Chelsea so far, though he’s also far from the only signing from last summer to look like a flop.
Other big names like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Marc Cucurella and Kalidou Koulibaly haven’t had much of an impact since joining Chelsea, while January signings such as Enzo Fernandez and Mykhaylo Mudryk haven’t lived up to expectations yet either.
Still, Leboeuf has singled out Sterling for criticism, saying he never looked like the kind of leader the team needed.
“I never like to be too hard on some players, I want to respect the man first and I want to respect the player. You don’t play for Liverpool, Man City, and Chelsea being an average player,” Leboeuf said.
“But when Raheem Sterling arrived at Chelsea I said that he wasn’t the guy to bring you something else, something extra.
“If Pep Guardiola decided to get rid of him then there must be a reason why. I said £50m was too much for him.
“But on the field he is not a leader, he is quite clumsy. Even if I was happy to see him scoring two goals against Forest, I have to say that I’m not happy with his performances overall since he arrived.
“He loses the ball too much, misses chances, and being just too clumsy. He is a big name but let’s say that you want to sell him now to any other club in the world, you will have nobody who will pay what we paid for him.
“I’m happy that he scored but I think it’s too late to change my mind on him and what he brings to the club.”