A move to Arsenal from City was not on Sterling’s mind during the transfer window
Raheem Sterling said he never gave a moment’s thought to leaving Manchester City when Arsenal tried to sign him at the end of the transfer window.
Arsene Wenger was interested in the winger when he left Liverpool for City in 2015 and Arsenal proposed a part-exchange deal when City tried to buy Alexis Sanchez in the summer.
“I didn’t think about it for one minute,” Sterling said yesterday as his side prepared for their Uefa Champions League Group F game against Napoli at the Etihad Stadium tonight. “I didn’t have any negative thoughts. I didn’t believe a word of it until I spoke to the manager. I didn’t need to worry about it.”
The England international believes he is at the Etihad Stadium for the long term and credited manager Pep Guardiola for his improvement.
“I signed for five years here. I’ve got two-and-a-half years left and I see myself here and playing my football here under a great manager with a great team,” Sterling was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse.
“He [Guardiola] always tries to get you do the simple stuff at the top level and that is genius because it works.”
Sterling, who joined City in a £44 million (Dh214.6m) move from Liverpool in 2015, is the Premier League’s second-highest scorer with six and has the best goals-per-minute ratio in the division.
But prolific as he has been, Sterling has still been overshadowed by Kevin de Bruyne, who Guardiola said produced his best display for City in Saturday’s 7-2 thrashing of Stoke City.
The manager added that the Belgian has to help his side win trophies to be ranked as Europe’s finest footballer.
“If you want to be considered one of the best, you have to win titles and we are here to help him achieve that,” he said. “The
best is just one but he is one of the best.”
Guardiola, nevertheless, argued it is unrealistic to expect De Bruyne to reach the heights scaled by the Argentine Lionel Messi, his former Barcelona charge.
“It would be a dream for me,” he said. “I would love not only Kevin but all the players I have in the past to get to the level of Messi.
“It would be a massive thing for my teams because we would win a lot of games. But I don’t want to put pressure on. Kevin is an outstanding, amazing player and a humble guy. But I don’t help comparing him with Messi. Messi is apart. He scores 60 goals every season for eight or nine years.”
Guardiola added over-confidence would not be a problem for his side.
“If they think [like] that they will be stupid. But that is not going to happen,” he was quoted as saying by AFP.
City could become more potent still if Sergio Aguero figures for the first time since breaking a rib.
The Argentina forward suffered the broken rib in a taxi crash in Amsterdam on September 28.
Aguero was an unused substitute against Stoke but has made good progress in the past few days.
“Day by day, he is much better,” Guardiola said. “Yesterday he had an amazing training session. The day before, for the game against Stoke, he was good but not perfect. “Yesterday was really good.” Captain Vincent Kompany remains doubtful with a calf injury while left-back Benjamin Mendy (knee) is a long-term absentee, according to media reports.
I didn’t believe a word of it until I spoke to the manager RAHEEM STERLING On a possible transfer to Arsenal