Chelsea’s star Raheem Sterling Vows to Stay Despite Bad Season

Raheem Ster­ling is report­ed­ly deter­mined to remain at Chelsea next sea­son and revi­tal­ize his career under incom­ing man­ag­er Mauri­cio Pochet­ti­no. Accord­ing to talk­SPORT, the 28-year-old winger has pledged his com­mit­ment to the Blues despite an under­whelm­ing debut cam­paign fol­low­ing his £49 mil­lion move from Man­ches­ter City last summer.

Ster­ling, one of the mar­quee sign­ings expect­ed to ush­er in a new era at Stam­ford Bridge, has strug­gled to repli­cate his Pre­mier League form in west Lon­don. The Eng­land inter­na­tion­al was heav­i­ly booed when intro­duced as a 63rd-minute sub­sti­tute against Bournemouth last weekend.

While Ster­ling has pro­vid­ed an assist for on-loan Atleti­co Madrid for­ward Joao Felix and scored in the 3–0 win over Leices­ter City in ear­ly March, that strike rep­re­sent­ed just his fourth goal in 35 appear­ances across all com­pe­ti­tions this term. The pal­try return high­lights why the for­mer City star ranks as Chelsea’s sec­ond-high­est scor­er behind Felix in a dis­as­trous cam­paign for the club’s mis­fir­ing attack.

By his own high stan­dards, Ster­ling’s per­for­mances have been lack­lus­ter, to say the least. How­ev­er, talk­SPORT reports that the play­er is com­mit­ted to Chelsea and deter­mined to play a role in the side’s planned squad over­haul this sum­mer. The Blues have bloat­ed their ranks with expen­sive acqui­si­tions over the past two trans­fer win­dows, spend­ing over £600 mil­lion on new tal­ent as a result.

Chelsea remain with­out a per­ma­nent man­ag­er after sack­ing Gra­ham Pot­ter in August but are tipped to soon announce Pochet­ti­no as their new head coach. Ster­ling is said to be excit­ed by the prospect of work­ing under the ex-Tot­ten­ham Hot­spur and Paris Saint-Ger­main boss.

The Blues cur­rent­ly sit 11th in the Pre­mier League table with four match­es remain­ing and are in dan­ger of record­ing their worst fin­ish since 1993. Eval­u­at­ing how best to uti­lize Ster­ling will be one of the first tasks fac­ing Pochet­ti­no if, as expect­ed, he takes charge at Stam­ford Bridge.

Felix, mean­while, is due to return to par­ent club Atleti­co when his loan expires on the final day of the sea­son, poten­tial­ly leav­ing Chelsea short of attack­ing options next term.