Tottenham Hotspur are interested in a deal to bring Raheem Sterling to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the summer transfer window.
What’s the talk?
That’s according to a report by The Telegraph, who claim that Antonio Conte is extremely keen on a move for the Manchester City winger in the coming months, with the 27-year-old said to be considering his options as he enters the final year of his current contract at The Etihad.
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Previous reports had suggested that, should the England international fail to put pen to paper on an extension with the Premier League champions, Pep Guardiola’s side would be willing to part with the forward for a figure in the region of £50m this summer.
Salah 2.0
Should Sterling be made available to sign in the summer transfer window, it is not difficult to understand why Conte would be interested in a deal to bring the winger to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium ahead of the club’s 2022/23 campaign.
Indeed, over his 30 Premier League appearances this season – only 23 of which came as starts – the £60m-rated forward proved a constant threat in the City attack, scoring 13 goals, registering six assists and creating five big chances for his teammates, as well as taking an average of 1.9 shots, making 1.4 key passes and completing 1.8 dribbles per game.
The £200k-per-week winger also impressed over his 12 Champions League outings – five of which were starts – bagging three goals, providing two assists and creating one big chance, in addition to taking an average of 1.3 shots, making 0.9 key passes and completing 1.4 dribbles per fixture.
Furthermore, according to FBref data, the 27-year-old also ranks in the top 7% of forwards in Europe’s big five leagues for shot-creating actions per 90, as well as the top 12% for npxG, the top 18% for xA, the top 1% for pass completion, the top 2% for progressive carries, the top 3% for dribbles completed, the top 15% for tackles and the top 21% for interceptions over the last 365 days.
These metrics have seen the former Liverpool star come in for a great deal of praise, with Tony Cascarino stating his belief back in April that the 74-time capped international was in better form than Mohamed Salah, as well as saying of the City sensation:
“Raheem Sterling has just been frightening. The year he has had since the Euros – he was brilliant then… left or right, he is ripping people apart. Raheem is playing the best football of his career. Better than he was at Liverpool and better than at any time at City.
“Mohamed Salah was fantastic at the start of the season. At the AFCON he didn’t play so well and he’s had a few tricky times in international football and he’s not played as well in the last month or two.
“If I’m taking from the start of the season, and even going back to the Euros, I can’t think of a player that has played better than Raheem Sterling.”
And, with FBref showing that Salah and Sterling’s respective outputs over the past year have been incredibly similar, should Conte manage to convince Daniel Levy of a move for the 27-year-old this summer, the Italian coach could well have landed his very own Egyptian in north London – something which will undoubtedly be an extremely exciting prospect for everyone involved with Spurs.
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