‘Is this a joke?’ – Raheem Sterling urged to join shock club as Champions League deadline expires

Raheem Sterling has been told the smartest thing to rebuild his career would be to sign for a mid-table club over an elite team.

The 31-year-old is currently a free agent after his contract with Chelsea was terminated 18 months early last week.

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Sterling, who had been the Blues’ highest-paid player since his arrival four years ago, had not featured for the club since May 2024.

Under Enzo Maresca, he was banished from first-team training as part of the so-called ‘bomb squad’ at Stamford Bridge that August.

Sterling joined Arsenal on loan last season, but started just four of his 17 Premier League appearances for the Gunners and failed to score.

Fulham, Juventus and Bayer Leverkusen were among his potential suitors last summer, but the winger remained in Chelsea exile.

Six months later, Sterling is now at liberty to sign for any new club outside the transfer window as a free agent and restart his career.

Raheem Sterling next club latest

talkSPORT understands the 82-cap England international is in talks with clubs in England and across Europe about a potential move.

It is also understood that four-time Premier League winner Sterling is most likely to join a top-three club on the continent.

However, the ex-Manchester City winger won’t be eligible to play in the Champions League until next season at the earliest after missing UEFA’s deadline around squad registrations for their three European club competitions.

European football broadcaster Andy Brassell believes this could be a blessing in disguise for Sterling if he wants to return to the top.

“I think there are two really big questions for Sterling,” Brassell exclusively told talkSPORT.com.

“What does he want out of the short term? That’s the biggest question.

“And the second question is how much of that brilliant player that was a huge part of [Gareth] Southgate’s England, that was a huge part of Guardiola’s Man City, but maybe not acknowledged as much, how much of that player is actually left?

“We’re not quite in the Paul Pogba zone yet, but we’re definitely at a point where we can’t say with any certainty what Raheem Sterling is as a footballer at this point on this day.

“Not what he’s been throughout his career.

“We know what he’s been throughout his career, and he’s been brilliant, but is he still that player?

“The fact is, he’s not played for long enough that we simply don’t know… that is really what’s affecting the market for him at the moment.”

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Raheem Sterling to Union Berlin

Napoli are among the several European clubs interested in Sterling, as revealed by talkSPORT reporter Ben Jacobs last week.

The former Liverpool starlet was widely reported to have declined an approach from Bayern Munich to sign him last summer.

“Now, I think if we think of it both emotionally and status-wise, we think that those clubs that you’ve reeled off there are Raheem Sterling’s bag,” Brassell added.

“But one of the most interesting things on transfer deadline day was the sporting director of Union Berlin, Horst Helt, saying that he’d been offered Raheem Sterling and put Union Berlin.

“At the time, I think he was a bit blindsided by it. He’s like, ‘Is this a joke? This is Raheem Sterling. We can’t afford anything like that’.

“But of course, Raheem Sterling, depending on how much money he was prepared to leave on the table, could play for anyone.”

Despite Heldt’s claim, talkSPORT understands no one from Sterling’s camp had offered the former Three Lions talisman to Union.

Sterling ‘looking at a sort of salvage project’

The Bundesliga side sit ninth in the table this season, 11 points outside the European places, but ten above the relegation zone.

And while Sterling’s next side won’t be Union, Brassell argued that a club in a similar situation should be the sort of project that appeals.

He added: “I would be astonished if he played in the Champions League for any club between now and the end of the season.

“At this point, you’re looking at a sort of salvage project. To salvage as much as you can of the brilliant player that he was before.

“But all those teams that are postulating for the Champions League or postulating to get into the Champions League, they haven’t got time.

“They haven’t got time really to bring him back, to condition him to match level and then to get him into the team.

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“I reckon if you sign him now, even if he can recover most of his previous powers, you’re not seeing that for six to eight weeks, are you?

“It goes back to what Giovanni Manna, the sporting director of Napoli, was saying going back a month or so. We know he’s a great player, but A, money, and there’s still that perception that it’s going to cost a lot to get him on.

“Until his agent says or he says, we don’t know how much he’s asking for; there’s still that perception, certainly from a distance within the game, that it’s going to cost a lot in wages.

“So we have to assume at the moment that he hasn’t come down that much from what he was on at Chelsea.

“Maybe the payoff gives him latitude to take a bit of pay cut, like Marcus Rashford, for example.

“The other concern, as outlined by Manna, is how long it’s going to take him to get fit.

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“That perception that he will not be able to contribute immediately, that’s why he hasn’t signed for a club in January, basically, because there’s not that feeling that he can contribute immediately.

“Now, it’s different, say, if you’re an Union Berlin or if you’re a Fulham, for example.

“And you can say, ‘We can take our time with you, get yourself in the right place, and then let’s see what you can still contribute.’ And that to me makes the best sense.

“What would be the best sense all around? If he were to take an enormous pay cut, if he were to sign for a club that is kind of somewhere in the middle with no immediate threat of relegation, but probably not going to make Europe as well, where he can build towards a point where he plays regular games, and we can see what he can still do.

“Realistically, I don’t think he’s going to do that in six months or less than six months until the end of the season.

“So, to sign him until the end of the season would be an exercise in futility to me.

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“What would be the smartest thing all around, the biggest show of faith all around? If he were to sign with that sort of club in the middle, whoever it might be, for like 18 months.

“So then, you get the rest of the season to get him back in serviceable condition, then he smashes it in pre-season training and goes and has a great season next season.

“To me, that seems like the most reasonable and logical target.

“But to assume that a Champions League club or a Champions League hopeful club is going to have that sort of patience, it feels really unlikely to me.

“Through a lot of circumstances that aren’t entirely his own fault, a lot of those bridges have been burned.

“So, the problem he’s got at the moment is that an elite club doesn’t really want to take a chance on him because they feel it’s too far off in the distance, what he’s able to do.

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“And the clubs that are below think, ‘Oh, well, this guy’s an elite player, there’s no way we can afford him.’

“So, he’s kind of stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea.

“Until he comes out and says, or his agent says, this is what we want to do, this is our project, this is where Raheem’s aiming to get, and this is how he’s going to get there with your help, then I don’t see where he signs. That’s the problem.”