Stan Collymore has said in his Mirror column that Raheem Sterling is most “at risk” of being axed following Manchester City’s signing of Bernardo Silva.
City recently announced the £43million arrival of Silva and Collymore believes that the arrival of the Portuguese star could have an effect on Sterling’s rank at the club.
“I worry for Sterling that he is the one City player most at risk from the Portuguese’s arrival,” the broadcaster wrote.
Pep Guardiola will have a lot of choice when it comes to his attacking midfielders, being able to rotate and switch up not just Sterling and Bernardo Silva, but also Leroy Sane and David Silva.
But Collymore claims that with Sterling’s lack of goals, he will most likely be the man on the sidelines.
The broadcaster and former England forward spoke about Sterling’s statistics over the past season claiming that his seven goals, and 11 assists were “poor”.
However, Bernardo Silva’s stats at Monaco over the past year reflect a similar season to the Man City star, with just one more assist, and on par with goals.
This could mean that Collymore is wrong and Sterling will have a fair battle with his club’s new signing.
But with both players having contracts with an expiry date of 2020, it seems that this season will spell out the fate of the 22-year old.
Collymore has urged Sterling to up his game during international duties to appeal to Guardiola ahead of the season.
“I want to see performances against Scotland and France which blast out messages of intent to Gareth Southgate and Pep Guardiola,” Collymore added in the Mirror.
“If Sterling finds himself in a position where he is only playing in every second or third game for City while those boys are playing week in, week out, then he could be in real trouble.”
Sterling has however grown at Manchester City following a £53million transfer fee from Liverpool, but still needs to prove to manager Pep Guardiola that he’s a worthy contender for a starting spot in midfield.
Plus, there could be many more signings over the summer to jeopardise Sterling’s position as Pep Guardiola has a reported transfer window budget of a whopping £300million.