Raphinha and Sterling to Chelsea: The players who will now be sold
FT Desk
- Updated: 29 Jun 2022 05:06 CDT
- 4 min read
Chelsea are close to securing the signing of Raphinha from Leeds, with Manchester City's Raheem Sterling expected to follow, but not everyone in a blue jersey will be celebrating.
Chelsea are keen to close the gap to Man City and Liverpool next season, and with Todd Boehly's takeover now complete, manager Thomas Tuchel can turn his attention to bolstering his squad.
The German tactician is understood to want a pair of wingers for his preferred 3-4-3 system, and in Raphinha and Sterling he could end up with two of the best.
The former racked up 11 goals and three assists last season despite his Leeds side finishing just three points clear of relegation, while the latter contributed 13 goals and six assists to City's Premier League-winning campaign.
Who will be the biggest losers from the arrivals of Raphinha and Sterling?
Hakim Ziyech
Ziyech's arrival from Ajax in ahead of the 2020/21 season was met with excitement after he had starred in the Champions League with the Dutch giants, and two goals in his first two games whet the appetite for more.
But the Dutch-born Moroccan struggled to get going last season, only scoring one goal before Christmas and ending the campaign with just four league strikes to his name. AC Milan have been linked with a move for the 29-year-old.
Timo Werner
Werner boasted a formidable goal-record of 28 strikes from 34 league games before swapping RB Leipzig for Chelsea in the summer of 2020, but he has suffered more than most from the "Bundesliga tax" phenomenon.
In fairness to Werner, he led the line in a counter-attacking team in Germany, but with Chelsea boating more than 60 per cent of possession in many of their games, he has never looks a comfortable fit in Tuchel's system. Juventus could offer him a way out, with the Germany international used as a makeweight in any Matthijs de Ligt deal.
Timooooooooooooooooo 🔥
So good to see Werner scoring again at the Bridge!#CHENEW pic.twitter.com/wnmeYzgbKd— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) February 16, 2021
Christian Pulisic
Another who came to Chelsea from Germany, Pulisic swapped the Bundesliga for Stamford Bridge the summer before Ziyech and Werner.
While there have been flashes of his talent - he became the youngest hat-trick scorer in the club's history against Burnley 38 days past his 21st birthday - injuries have held up the American's progress, and a return to Dortmund could be on the cards.
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Callum Hudson-Odoi
Hudson-Odoi might be given more time to prove his worth than some of the above - Chelsea rebuffed Bayern Munich's advances in no uncertain terms the summer before last - and at 21 he still has time to develop.
But the academy graduate would have been hoping to build upon his 11 league starts last season, and the arrivals of Raphinha and Sterling make that unlikely. Cashing in on a player rated at €34m by FootballTransfers in-house algorithm might be beneficial to both player and club.
