Raheem Sterling - Legend or Let down?

 Amar Zukancic

     With the decrease in output and inconsistency in form with our wingers the last few seasons, there has been a reopened discussion on one of the most polarizing players in the club’s history… Raheem Sterling. 

    Sterling is undoubtedly one of the most controversial figures amongst City fans in recent history, as his fans love him and his haters despise him. Sterling’s highs were some of the highest we’ve ever seen at the club, but the lows were unforgettably low. 

Raheem the Dream

    He was brought in as one of the marquee signings in the 2015 summer transfer window alongside Nicolas Otamendi from Valencia, Fabian Delph from Aston Villa, and some ginger Chelsea flop. The 50 million pound winger had a very bumpy first two seasons, similar to what we’ve recently seen with Jeremy Doku. Inconsistently high highs and goofy lows plagued his first two seasons. We saw glimpses of what was to come in moments like the First Leg vs Monaco in the 2016/17 Champions League Round of 16 or his beautiful left footed strike from that Kevin De Bruyne assist vs Arsenal at the Etihad in December 2016.
    In the summer of 2017 after getting a season under his belt with Pep Guardiola, the recruitment of Bernardo Silva as competition, and the rise of Phil Foden and Brahim Diaz through the academy, Sterling knew he had to step up his game… and he did just that. In the home opener of the 2017/18 Premier League season 10 man City found themselves 1-0 down to Everton when Danilo sent in a last ditch effort to the box which Mason Holgate headed out with ease, but out of nowhere came a Raheem Sterling volley to the bottom left corner of the net to save the point for City. From that exact point Raheem Sterling’s career trajectory changed. In the next few months he scored and assisted like it was nothing, won us countless matches with late winners against the likes of Bournemouth, Feyenoord, Huddersfield, and Southampton, and established himself as one of the league’s premier wingers. He finished the season with 18 goals and 11 assists… just in the premier league.

The next season though was where Sterling crowned himself not just as one of the best wingers in the league, but as one of the best footballers on the planet. 2018/19 was undoubtedly Sterling’s magnum opus, and he made that statement clear in City's opening match at the Emirates. In the first half Benjamin Mendy played a pass back towards sterling at the top of the box who proceeded to cut in and curl the ball past Petr Cech like it was nothing. Every game that season was plagued with Sterling’s influence. Winning goals in extra time of a Champions League Knockout match vs Schalke, braces against Chelsea, assists vs Arsenal, FA Cup Final braces, match-winning assists vs Arsenal, and more crucial title race goals. He was playing with a confidence, poise, and precision that we had never seen before from a City winger, and in a team with the likes of Sergio Aguero, Bernardo Silva, Leroy Sane, and Riyad Mahrez, he was somehow the standout player. He was crowned FWA Footballer of the Year, PFA Young Player of the Year, was the PFA Player of the Year Runner Up, was a PFA Team of the Year member, and earned a 12th Place Ballon d’Or finish. 

The infamous "Raheem Sterling in 2019" graphic

    The next year was much of the same, until the very last game. In the 2019/20 season he opened with a goal against his former club in the Community Shield Final and then an opening day hattrick at the London Stadium. He finished the season with 20 goals in the league, 30 in all competitions, and finished the season ahead of Sergio Aguero as City’s top scorer for the very first time. He was one of City’s best players that season behind the Ballon d’Or worthy season Kevin De Bruyne was producing and seemed to always be in the right spot at the right time for City that season, until that infamous night in Lisbon. As we all know City were 2-1 down to Lyon in the Champions League Quarterfinals, and in the 86th minute Gabriel Jesus had perfectly squared it to the back post to an open Raheem Sterling who proceeded to produce one of the worst misses in the history of the sport from about 2 yards out. Even though he had beautifully set up Kevin De Bruyne to equalize a mere 17 minutes earlier and was probably the 2nd best player on the pitch that day, that was always going to be the only thing anyone would remember from that match. That miss brought back the old conversations about him that he was allergic to goals, not a natural finisher, a weak minded player, and not up to the level to play for City.

Decline of a Star

The next two seasons after that were very hot and cold for Sterling. When he was good he was good, but when he was bad he looked like the worst player on the pitch. He had many bright spots like the first half of the 20/21 season where he and De Bruyne were the only two things keeping us from the relegation zone, or the winter of the 21/22 season where it seemed like he was back to his old self scoring goals with ease. The issue is that he had slowly become just another squad player, and wasn't the set in stone starter and superstar he once was. He was given pity minutes in the UCL KOs when we'd already won the match against Dortmund and PSG in 20/21 and genuinely looked less capable than Felix Nmecha or Liam Delap who were riding the bench as EDS youngsters. But luckily for himself, he had one more great moment for us before he left. In May 2022 we were 2-0 to Aston Villa with about 15 minutes left in the Premier League season, and it looked like typical old City was going to choke once again, give another title to the Scousers, and virtually hand them a treble. But just like his 2019 self, Sterling got the ball at his feet, drove at the fullback, and then sent a beautiful cross to the back post to Ilkay Gundogan to spark one of the greatest comebacks and moments in Premier League history. 
    It’s really hard to understand how a player with 339 matches, 131 goals, and 86 assists for the club can be so despised, but that’s just Raheem Sterling for you. Always being the center of attacks from the media, his infamous “T-Rex” running form, and his hysterically bad misses and performances against Lyon, Burnley, and Manchester United were all the major factors that led to some City fans despising him. It was always down to inconsistency. Everyone knows just how good he was, but they also knew how unreliable he was and that left such a stain on his legacy. Yes, that hattrick vs Norwich was nice, but why does it take you 10 shots to score 2 goals? Or why have you been here for 7 years but never scored a Derby goal? He also left the club on sour terms. Everyone always knew he was one of, if not Pep’s favorite player, and in the 21/22 season he felt as if Pep and the club had turned on him and disrespected him. They were relying on Foden and Mahrez more, and trying to replace him with Jack Grealish. So even though he still had multiple seasons left on his contract, he left for Chelsea in July 2022. He did not attend our Premier League Trophy Parade in 2022, and infamously refused to sign a City shirt in LA a few weeks after he had left in one of his first public appearances as a Chelsea player. It left a sour taste in many fans' mouths as it looked like he expected to be treated in some sort of way when his performances didn't reflect that, and then forced his way out when he was unhappy.

Ever since he left Manchester his career had plummeted, and it has now virtually been over for three years. IT has gotten so bad that Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca has forced him to train alone at Cobham at 10pm instead of with the team. It is sad to see a once great player burn out like that, but you have to realize he has a different career arc than most players. He started so young as a teenager, that by the time he hit his peak in 2019 he was still only 24 years old but had been playing regular Premier League football for nearly 7 years. He started earlier, peaked earlier, and is now finishing earlier. Similar to other young English stars like Wayne Rooney or Joe Cole, Raheem Sterling's career fizzled out much earlier than players like Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk, or Ousmane Dembele who don't hit their prime until their late 20s.

Complicated Legacy

Overall Sterling is in a very odd spot in the ranking of Manchester City Legends, and it heavily depends on who you talk to. To me, he is absolutely a club legend. His numbers reflect it, his performances reflect it, and his legacy does as well. He was always there when we needed him, and in the first half of the Pep era he and De Bruyne were the two constants in that team. Aguero and Jesus came and went, Sane rose and then fell out of favor, Bernardo and Mahrez were rotated and moved around, but #7 and #17 were always there. If you look at the records in Pep's managerial career, Sterling's name is always there. Most goals? Messi, Haaland, Aguero, then Sterling. Most assists? De Bruyne, Messi, Xavi, then Sterling. If we’d won the Champions League in 2018/19 or England had won the Nations League he could have been our first ever Ballon d’Or winner, and that was genuinely the level he had reached in 2019. Sterling was Pep’s crutch for so long and was a part of so many iconic moments. He assisted Foden’s first goal for the club, assisted Bernardo's first goal, and was the second player to ever captain us in a UEFA Champions League Final against Chelsea (after De Bruyne went out injured).

He’s not on the same level as De Bruyne, Aguero, Silva, or Kompany, but it feels wrong to put him in the same tier as Cult Heroes such as Dzeko, Stones, Sane, and Tevez. He lies somewhere between the two tiers, the same area where Bernardo, Gundogan, Rodri, and Zabaleta reside. The discourse around Raheem Sterling’s Manchester City career is a very complicated one, and that perfectly sums up his stint at the club. He’s one of the very best to ever put on the Sky Blue shirt, and a player who will always be associated with the club’s greatest ever period.