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Chelsea urged to sell two players 'not good enough' to raise Raheem Sterling funds
CHELSEA could lose two players in order to sign Raheem Sterling this summer.
Chelsea's 2022-23 Premier League fixtures
Former Aston Villa striker Gabby Agbonlahor has urged Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel to sell Christian Pulisic and Hakim Ziyech this summer to boost funds in their pursuit of Manchester City forward Raheem Sterling. The England star has just one year left on his contract at the Etihad and the Blues have been named as frontrunners for the 27-year-old’s signature should he move away from Pep Guardiola’s side.
Agbonlahor believes that Pulisic and Ziyech could make way for the possible additions of Sterling and Leeds winger Raphinha this summer, and insisted that the two Chelsea wingers are not good enough for the club. “I don’t think signing Raphinha would stop Thomas Tuchel going for Sterling,” Agbonlahor told Football Insider. “I think he’ll want both. “I think he’ll want to get rid of Pulisic, he’ll want to get rid of Ziyech. I said last season, and I got hammered for it, that Ziyech and Pulisic are not good enough for the Premier League.
“They don’t get past players, their end product is not good enough, they don’t score enough goals. Thomas Tuchel has realised, now [Romelu] Lukaku has gone as well, they need more firepower up there because they will get left behind with what they’ve got.”
Sterling is said to be weighing up his options ahead of a possible move to Stamford Bridge this summer, while Chelsea have met Leeds’ valuation for Raphinha but the player is holding out hope for a move to Barcelona.
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Both Ziyech and Pulisic have been linked with moves away, and the Moroccan could be set to join AC Milan. Chelsea will hope to recuperate the majority of the £33million they spent on Ziyech in 2020, and having made just 14 Premier League starts last season could be on his way out of Stamford Bridge.
Former Chelsea midfielder Craig Burley has also claimed that Pulisic may need to leave the club this summer in search of regular minutes ahead of the World Cup.
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“I think if he wants to make a mark on a regular basis, he is probably going to have to drop down one level,” Burley told ESPN. “I don’t mean one level as in the Championship, a level within the Premier League.
“Whether that’s a West Ham or a Newcastle or whoever it is, you look at the game time that he has had, you look at the possibility of Sterling and a couple of others coming, you look at [Kai] Havertz, [Timo] Werner is still there.
“Some of these players might go, [Hakim] Ziyech, [Callum] Hudson-Odoi, Mason Mount and then Christian himself. Some of these might go but they might not.”
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