Pep Guardiola has wished Raheem Sterling all the best after the England international completed a £55million move to Chelsea recently. Earlier this month, the Blues confirmed the move – £45m plus £10m in add-ons – as their first signing of the summer.
Sterling joined Chelsea on a five-year contract and stated his excitement in being back in London, where he was raised as a child. He said: "First and foremost, it’s a pleasure to be here.
"I’ve obviously achieved a lot in my career so far, but there is still so much more to achieve and I’m really looking forward to doing that in a Chelsea shirt, under Thomas’s management. London is my home and where it all started for me, and it’s amazing I now have the opportunity to play in front of friends and family week in, week out at Stamford Bridge. I’m really looking forward to meeting the fans there soon.
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"I do want to take the opportunity to thank Todd, Behdad, the ownership group, Thomas, and all involved in the process of getting me here. I can’t wait to get going now and continue to do my talking on the pitch."
Since his move was completed, Sterling has featured in two Chelsea pre-season matches, first against Charlotte FC and then Arsenal. He has shown glimpses in both of what Chelsea have spent big money on.
Now, Guardiola, when speaking about Sterling, as well as Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus (who both moved to Arsenal), has wished the departed trio good luck at their new clubs. The Manchester City boss said: "All we have done these seasons, without them it would have not been possible.
"Raheem has been the pace and we are a team that make all the passes and he makes this explosion. There’s something incredible, unpredictable [about] his runs in the right, left.
"I saw how he grew up in his ambition to score goals, to make an assist, and [became] more hungry, and more, in the good terms, selfish to say, I want more goals. He’s a guy who can play every three days, he would never get injured. He was top.
"Oleks arrived as a boy, coming from Ukraine, and he went on loan to Holland and came back and we wanted to loan him again, we wanted to sell him again. He said, ‘no, I want to stay.’
"He was in the gym when everyone was sleeping and making extra training sessions when the training session was over, and he said, ‘my time will come’ and his time came, and he was there, he was ready, and he played incredibly well. He’s a top-class player and we will miss him a lot.
"Gabriel, maybe is the nicest person I ever worked with. It was a huge task to be alongside and to compete with the legend of this club, Sergio Aguero. Sergio Aguero had scored a lot of goals with us. So Gabriel, a young, young player from Brazil, comes to compete with him, and he was all the time ready to accept everything.
"He’s the best striker/defender I ever found to play in the three positions. [He] can play five minutes, he plays the best five minutes of his life. He plays 90 minutes, he will give everything.
"I had the feeling that in most cases we will miss him, but it’s football, it’s life, and the successes, all of them, will be our happiness.
"Hopefully they can enjoy in Chelsea, Raheem, and Arsenal, Oleks and Gabriel. What we have done in these seasons, everyone was involved and all three were important. It was a privilege for me to be their manager, and I’m very fortunate to have these players in the last six seasons to help."
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