Chelsea’s “pointless signing” is on track to be a bigger flop than Sterling

Even though Chelsea have a squad full of incredible players like Moises Caicedo, Cole Palmer and Marc Cucurella, they’ve made more than their fair share of poor signings in recent years.

For example, the likes of Axel Disasi, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, João Félix and Mykhailo Mudryk are just some of the club’s worst pickups since the ownership took over.

However, when it comes to the most prominent example of a signing gone wrong at Stamford Bridge, a lot of fans and pundits alike will pick out Raheem Sterling.

Unfortunately for Chelsea, one of Enzo Maresca’s more recent signings looks set to go down a similar path to the Englishman.

Sterling’s Chelsea career

When Chelsea initially signed Sterling for around £50m in the summer of 2022, there was a fair amount of understandable excitement from fans and pundits alike.

After all, here was a four-time Premier League winner who, during his time with Manchester City, racked up a brilliant haul of 131 goals and 86 assists in 339 games.

That positive feeling around the deal lasted quite a while as well, as even though he wasn’t electric, the Englishman started life in the capital fairly well.

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For example, he scored three goals and provided one assist in his first five league games and by the time the new year rolled around, he had produced eight goal involvements in 19 games.

He would end that first season with a reasonable enough haul of nine goals and four assists in 38 games.

Interestingly, in terms of raw output, the following campaign was even better, as he ended it with 21 goal involvements in 43 games.

However, the club then appointed Maresca in the summer, and the Italian manager decided he no longer wanted to use the former City star and a loan move to Arsenal was agreed.

The winger’s time in North London was nothing short of a disaster.

Described as a “passenger” by Arsenal writer Charles Watts, the Kingston-born ace appeared to lose all of his dynamism and ended the season with a paltry tally of one goal and five assists in 28 games.

Since his return to West London, the former England international has been relegated to the club’s ‘bomb squad’ and is unlikely to ever make another appearance for Chelsea again.

In all, while there were moments of quality here and there, it would be hard to describe Sterling’s move to Chelsea as anything other than a dud, and the bad news is, a player in the current squad could end up being an even bigger flop in time.

The Chelsea dud who could be a bigger flop than Sterling

Unfortunately, a few of Chelsea’s summer signings have been underwhelming so far, including Liam Delap and Jorrel Hato.

However, when it comes to someone who could end up being a bigger flop than Sterling, it’s impossible to look past Jamie Gittens.

Like his compatriot, the dynamic winger’s signing was met with quite a bit of excitement and, once again, justifiably so.

For example, across 49 games for Borussia Dortmund last season, the Reading-born dynamo recorded 17 goal involvements.

The 21-year-old gem even scored away to Bayern Munich in the league and Real Madrid in the Champions League, which led Sky Sports’ Dougie Critchley to describe him as “England’s best left winger” at one point.

So, there were certain expectations that, even if he wasn’t going to be a bona fide star to start with, he would be a seriously useful option off the left for Maresca and Co.

Unfortunately, that just hasn’t happened.

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Instead, the summer signing has looked miles off the pace and struggled in practically every competition he’s played in.

For example, he had to be hooked against League One side Cardiff City in the League Cup, with his replacement, Alejandro Garnacho, going on to score a brace.

In all, the Englishman has scored one goal and provided five assists in 20 appearances for the Blues, with three of those goal involvements coming in the League Cup and the other three in the league against relegation-threatened sides.

Considering this poor return, the poor performances and the fact that he could fall even further down the pecking order now that the club are interested in Antoine Semenyo, it’s hard to disagree with one analyst’s opinion that the winger has been a “pointless signing.”

Moreover, it’s easy to see a world in which he becomes another Sterling-like figure in the squad, and perhaps the only reason he isn’t already viewed as such is the fact that he’s a new signing and not earning anywhere near as much.

Ultimately, Gittens is a talented player, and there is time for him to come good, but as things stand, he is looking like another flop signing for Chelsea.

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