Ster: I’d have wasted time staying at City
RAHEEM Sterling admits he had to leave City because he wasn’t playing enough.
The forward ended his trophyladened spell with the Blues this summer, returning to London to join Chelsea.
The 27-year-old helped the Blues claim four Premier League titles having arrived from Liverpool in 2015.
Sterling was born in Jamaica but raised in London. He has returned to the capital after new Chelsea owners Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital viewed him as their top target at the start of the summer.
The forward had seen his game time reduced in the last two seasons with the Blues, and said he felt like he would be ‘wasting time’ if he stayed at City but didn’t play regularly.
“As a person you strive to achieve, and I just felt my time at City was getting limited on playing time for different reasons,” said Sterling.
“I couldn’t afford to waste that time. So I needed to keep that same level and a fresh challenge.
“Since 17 I’d been a regular starting, so to get to a peak time in my career, not to play regularly is something I wouldn’t accept.
“My personality is to try to fight and change the scenario, but it didn’t happen and that’s it.
“This was the option that was tailor-made to my personal goals, and with my family as well and the direction the club is going in.
“It’s a team that’s competing and only going to get better. With the new ownership as well, it made a lot of sense.
“It was tough, of course, with the time I spent at City and there’s lots of memories and top moments.
“But the year and a bit that I was in and out of the team taught me a lot about myself, made me value a lot of things and I tried to get things in order.
“It was a difficult decision but you have to make the decision that’s best for yourself.
“It does feel like coming home, coming back to London; it’s been a long time that I’ve been away, since about 14 or 15.”
Sterling, who is back living in London for the first time in more than 10 years after his £47.5m move, revealed he was encouraged by Thomas Tuchel’s praise for his direct attacking threat, with the Chelsea boss excited to see him drive forward with the ball at his feet.
“I’m excited, I’ve grown up a bit off the field,” said Sterling,” who has 77 caps for England. “I feel like my whole journey – going up to Liverpool, Manchester, playing at City and living the dream - now I’m coming back to London as a grown adult.
“I’ve been in the football game a while now, I’ve got my head on my shoulders and I know exactly what I want from my life and football.
“So it’s the perfect time to come back.
“Inside the changing room and at
To get to a peak time in my career, not to play regularly is something I wouldn’t accept Raheem Sterling
the football club, there’s a developing side of me which I’d like to see a lot more, and that’s to be more involved in decisions in the dressing room, to be more vocal, and try to drive the team on.
“I think he (Tuchel) said to me it’s my directness, always threatening in behind, not always wanting it in to feet and going in behind.
“But most importantly it’s how I attack the box, and with the fullbacks that we have here he said that’s the one thing he wants to see a lot more, so that was the conversation there.”
Chelsea banned one fan for life and five more temporarily over racist abuse directed at Sterling at Stamford Bridge in his City days in 2019.
The new Chelsea recruit insisted that incident had not even crossed his mind amid his decision to join the club, however.
When quizzed on that 2019 abuse, Sterling added: “That’s the first time I’ve actually even remembered it.
“It wasn’t anything that played on my mind at all, I can’t let abuse from individuals affect my perception of a club.”