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Gabriel Jesus has signed for Arsenal and Raheem Sterling is almost certain to complete his anticipated move to Chelsea in the coming days. Both are intriguing transfers in and of themselves but, together, they represent something very unusual: players rarely move between Big Six Premier League clubs with all parties relatively satisfied with the deal. So what is Manchester City doing in allowing two regular first-team forwards to move to clubs that are, at least to an extent, direct rivals?
Examples of intra–Big Six moves almost always come with an asterisk. Willy Caballero left Man City for Chelsea in 2017 because reserve goalkeepers are an unusual commodity. Juan Mata left Chelsea for Manchester United in ’14 because José Mourinho didn’t rate him. James Milner left Man City for Liverpool in ’15 because his contract had expired, he was keen to play for Liverpool and the sense was (quite wrongly) that at 29 he was entering the twilight of his career. Robin van Persie, Bacary Sagna, Emmanuel Adebayor, Gaël Clichy and Samir Nasri all left Arsenal because the financial strain of the stadium move meant their contract demands could not be met.
