Aston Villa are reportedly not interested in signing Raheem Sterling from Chelsea, despite speculation linking us with a move last week.
The 29-year-old is expected to leave our Premier League rivals ahead of the transfer deadline, as he is said to not be part of Enzo Maresca’s plans moving forward. That in turn led to the suggestion that Villa might be a possible solution as we look to strengthen Unai Emery’s squad.
READ MORE: Promising signs from Villa youngster as injury setback could now lead to important role
However, as per The Athletic’s David Ornstein, there has been no interest shown from Villa, while he adds that we are not pursuing a deal for the England international.
Given it was a touted swoop that split opinion, some will be disappointed by the latest development while others might be relieved that a move is not expected to materialise.
While Sterling’s experience, winning mentality and quality in the final third would have added another dynamic to our attack that could have helped us compete across multiple competitions as we aim to win silverware this year too, it would likely have been a complicated deal to make financially given his touted wages.
In turn, it remains to be seen if Villa are still keen to strengthen our options in that department and are still looking at other potential targets, or if Emery feels as though we have enough quality and depth in that area of his squad already.
Jacob Ramsey, Morgan Rogers, Emiliano Buendia, Leon Bailey, John McGinn and others are all available to the Villa boss already to play behind Ollie Watkins, and so it could certainly be argued that we’re set for now without having to add much more.
Instead, there are perhaps question marks hanging over our right-back situation with Matty Cash now sidelined by injury, and so time will tell if Villa do any more business this week ahead of the transfer deadline.
Based on the latest report above though and the reputable source that is Ornstein, it doesn’t look as though it will be Sterling who arrives to further bolster our attacking options for this season.
