Barcelona are currently undergoing a major overhaul with the club legend in Xavi at the helm at the moment. The Spaniard took over as the new head coach of Barcelona following the premeditated sacking of the former Barca boss, Ronald Koeman.
Having said that, since Xavi took over the reins at the Camp Nou, the rumors linking Raheem Sterling with a move to the former La Liga champions have only intensified as the current Blaugrana boss believes that pure wingers will be able to carry out his attacking style of play.
Ousmane Dembele was specifically bought by Barcelona back in 2017 for this exact reason but constant injuries have hampered the progress of the Frenchman who was once regarded as the best youngster in the world. The 24-year-old has spent more than 650 days on the sidelines injured.
Given his injury-prone nature, Barcelona decided to offer Dembele to Manchester City this past summer, as per TV3.
The Catalans endured a dramatic summer window with the untimely exit of their club legend and leader in Lionel Messi to Paris Saint-Germain on a Bosman due to the former La Liga champions exceeding the wage bill limit set by La Liga, massively. With the idea of reducing the swollen wage bill, Barca managed to offload Antoinne Griezmann on the final day of the summer window.
However, it has only now come to the surface that the Blaugrana also tried to offload Ousmane Dembele off their wage bill by taking advantage of Pep Guardiola’s love for the French winger. The Spanish giants wanted to see Dembele go to England with Raheem Sterling making a trip to Camp Nou.
Sterling, who has fallen down the pecking order at the Etihad did not want to accept the Spanish challenge back then and he consequently declined the move due to which any potential deal between the two clubs regarding Dembele collapsed.
City were unwilling to pay for the injury-prone winger and with Sterling behind the likes of Jack Grealish and Phil Foden ahead of him in the pecking order.
The 26-year-old though has changed his stance now as he is open to pastures new in search of regular game-time. Barcelona are tipped to sign him on loan this January.
What do you think could happen in the upcoming winter window with respect to Sterling’s future?