Athletic: Bayern Munich wanted another Chelsea winger as well as Nicolas Jackson | OneFootball

With the Saudi Pro League window now closed, the final opportunity for Raheem Sterling has vanished and he is now almost guaranteed to be at Chelsea until January at the earliest.

That has prompted a piece from Simon Johnson of the Athletic, who looks back at how the player and Chelsea got into this mess in the first place.

There’s coverage of the PFA’s interest in the treatment of Sterling and teammate Axel Disasi by Chelsea, who are making them train separately from the main group in the notorious “bomb squad”.

Sterling’s Bayern move a non-starter despite Kompany interest

Vincent Kompany speaks to the media. (Photo by FC Bayern München-Pool/Getty Images)

Perhaps the most interesting part of the whole article is about a move that didn’t happen:

“Bayern Munich made a late attempt to convince Sterling to join them,” Johnson wrote.

“It is perhaps not that surprising, given another former Manchester City team-mate — Vincent Kompany — is the head coach. A move for Sterling was raised during discussions with Chelsea over the loan deal for Nicolas Jackson.”

But sources close to Sterling say the “biggest factor” in his decision to stay at Chelsea was a desire to remain close to London, where his family are.

Sterling looked to avoid repeated of rushed move to Arsenal

The winger also wanted to avoid a repeat of last season. In that case, he secured a loan move to Arsenal just before the deadline but didn’t have enough time to find out what kind of role he would have in the team. He played just 13 times from the start and racked up just 1143 minutes.

We can understand why he would want more information on a move and his potential role before it happens – but right now those 1143 minutes are 1143 more than he’s going to get this season.