Chelsea in talks with Juventus over deal for Federico Chiesa, Raheem Sterling to be sacrificed

As reported by Gianluca DiMarzio, Chelsea and Juventus are discussing the possibility of a swap-deal featuring Federico Chiesa and Raheem Sterling.

According to Transfermarkt, both Chiesa and Sterling are valued at around £30 million, (€35 million), with the Englishman’s value in particular having tanked since his move to West London two years ago, so perhaps a straight swap-deal could be on the cards.

High-profile swap-deals are incredibly rare, with Zlatan Ibrahimović for Samuel Eto’o in 2009 and Henrikh Mkhitaryan for Alexis Sánchez nine years later the most memorable, although, as noted by Dan Roan for BBC Sport, they have been something of a theme of the summer in the Premier League, as club’s desperately seek to avoid points deductions for breaching Profitability and Sustainability Rules.

As Di Marzio notes in his aforementioned piece, a Sterling-Chiesa swap-deal would be far from straight forward, mainly due to the fact Sterling earns around double his counterpart’s wages, a reported £300,000 per week according to the Telegraph’s Sam Dean.

The Italian journalist adds that if a swap deal can’t be agreed, Chelsea could still buy Chiesa but only if they are able to find another buyer for Sterling.

Raheem Sterling’s pre-match bombshell

On Sunday afternoon, 75 minutes prior to their Premier League opener against Manchester City, Chelsea’s team news was released, with Raheem Sterling neither in the starting XI nor even amongst the nonet of substitutes.

In response to this, Sterling’s ‘camp’ released a statement that can be found here, which contained plenty of guff, but did say ‘our expectation was that Raheem would be involved in this weekend’s fixture….. so we are looking forward to gaining some clarity on the situation’.

Pundits and media working on the game at Stamford Bridge, that the Blues lost 2-0, unanimously ridiculed Sterling for his action, including the Sky Sports trio of Jamie Redknapp, Micah Richards and Daniel Sturridge.

Since joining Chelsea from Sunday’s opponents Man City for £47.5 million in July 2022, Sterling has struggled for consistency, in-keeping with how the Blues have been as a whole in fairness, scoring 19 goals in 81 appearances, bagging just eight in the Premier League last season.

Given their ridiculously bloated squad which, by my count, currently contains 42 players, not including the 11 out on loan, Sterling was only one of a number of high-profile omissions from Sunday’s matchday squad; Kepa Arrizabalaga, Đorđe Petrović, Trevoh Chalobah, Conor Gallagher, Armando Broja, Carney Chukwuemeka and Romelu Lukaku, we could go all, also available but not present.

It’s physically impossible for Enzo Maresca to keep everyone happy, so a major clear-out over the next week and a bit would surely benefit both him and the club, even if that’s easier said than done, so Sterling’s days at a Chelsea player could be numbered.

Frozen-out Federico Chiesa

Meantime, the reason this swap-deal could be feasible, Federico Chiesa has also been frozen out by Juventus.

As reported by Fabrizio Romano, Chiesa has not been included in la Vecchia Signora’s squad for their Monday night Serie A opener which’ll see newly-promoted Como visit Turin.

Having appointed new manager Thiago Motta, Juve are making wholesale changes to their squad, already releasing both Wojciech Szczęsny and Adrien Rabiot while, as reported by Ritabrata Banerjee in Goal, Chiesa, who’s into the final year of his contract, has been explicitly told to find a new club, as he won’t be offered a new contract.

With the transfer deadline of 30 August 2024 rapidly approaching, could a swap-deal suit all parties?