The bizarre Chelsea and Man United swap transfer deal that could create even more mayhem

It’s a brave man who would put hard money on Chelsea’s next moves in the transfer market. Just when you think you have a handle on their plans, they spring another surprise, quite often on their own players, as they recently did with Raheem Sterling – and according to a new report, their solution to the problem they created by suddenly exiling the former England winger from the first team is just as shocking as anything else they’ve done this summer.

The Daily Telegraph claim that Chelsea are exploring a deal which would send Sterling to Manchester United – and bring their own exile, Jadon Sancho, to Stamford Bridge as part of the same deal. On the one hand, it’s an idea which would help both players to offload players they no longer have a use for, but on the other it seems like a deal which would generate plenty of issues of its own.

The Telegraph’s report stops short of suggesting that United have responded positively to the idea and it notes that Sterling may well move to Serie A side Juventus, with that deal further along the pipeline in terms of negotiations. The article also notes that Sancho’s wages could be a problem – they are reported to stand at £250,000 per week, which Chelsea don’t want to pay.

Which presents one of the more glaring reasons why this deal sounds hard to work through – if Chelsea are loath to pay a quarter of a million a week, then United are unlikely to be any happier to take on Sterling’s wages, which are believed to be set at £300,000 per week. But even if the financial obstacles to a deal can we worked through satisfactorily, there are plenty of footballing issues which suggest that this move could be a pretty bad idea for everyone involved.

To start with Manchester United’s end of the deal, Sterling would immediately find himself in a fifty-fifty battle for the left wing spot with Marcus Rashford, who has been struggling to find his best form since the end of Erik ten Hag’s first season in charge – Sterling, likewise, has been off the boil for a similar length of time. It’s hard to see what creating a battle between two players who need to get back to their brilliant best would achieve.

If the issues that either Rashford or Sterling have had which have led to relatively poor form are psychological in any way, then benching them in turns seems unlikely to generate the kind of positive environment that would help matters. If one player hits form while the other struggles, being stuck on the sidelines would only make it harder for the player who loses out to get their confidence and brio back – and if the conditions can be created for one or both to flourish and rediscover their own best football, then an all-but enforced rotation system isn’t the best way to get the most out of that quality.

It’s a selection and squad management headache whether either or both players do well, and United’s recent track record when it comes to nurturing their own players and keeping the dressing room happy is less than stellar. Sancho is on the market for a reason, after all, and it isn’t because United handled him well, not that the club necessarily deserve the entirety of the blame.

From a tactical perspective, too, there is an argument that Sterling wouldn’t be an obvious purchase, unless it’s to add some depth. When at his rampaging best with Manchester City, Sterling’s movement on and off the ball was similar to that of Rashford when the latter plays wide, and Sterling doesn’t necessarily offer a drastically different dimension in terms of the way he would work with the rest of the attacking players around him. Furthermore, Sterling has tended to be at his best when he’s attacking with other players in close proximity to give the option of quick one-twos, whereas United’s counter-attacking style means that they often have their forward line quite far apart. It isn’t readily apparent that Sterling would offer a very different dimension to Rashford, even if the way they play with the ball once they get it is quite different.

From Chelsea’s perspective, moving Sterling on may make sense given the volume of wide forwards they already have, but on that basis it isn’t very clear as to why they would want Sancho unless they can also find a new home for the struggling Mykhaylo Mudryk. Between Mudryk, Pedro Neto and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (not to mention younger players in the squad) they are hardly short of options even if Sterling leaves.

And in Sancho they would be taking on a reclamation project who would either take minutes from younger players who need to develop or other expensive signings – not that such logic has prevented Chelsea from making such deals before. Even if Sancho could hit his own highest notes again, years after he last did so, the only thing he’s clearly better than Sterling at is beating players one on one, at least if the stats both players have put up in recent seasons can be believed. Otherwise, they offer a relatively similar output at their best, with Sterling having arguably the higher ‘proven’ ceiling, although Sancho has a few years on his counterpart. At 24, he could at least count as a player with enough development time ahead of him to match up with Chelsea’s determination to build a squad for the long term.

By the sounds of it, this deal is relatively unlikely to happen as a swap, although Manchester United would certainly listen to offers for Sancho if Sterling went to Juventus or somewhere else. But surely Chelsea have more pressing needs than another left winger, as do United. And it’s debatable whether swapping reclamation projects is such a wonderful idea anyway – although perhaps a change of scene would prove to be precisely the shot in the arm that both players need after a difficult period of their careers. There’s certainly no dearth of talent at either end of the proposed trade. The question is whether United and Chelsea are the right homes for either side to fulfil that talent right now. They certainly haven’t been so far.