“That’s put them off” – Gary Neville claims this Mikel Arteta transfer error has caused friction at Arsenal | OneFootball

Manchester United legend Gary Neville has claimed that Arsenal didn’t particularly want to sign Raheem Sterling last summer.

The England international ended up joining Arsenal on loan from Chelsea late on in the summer, but he’s proven pretty poor when he has played, and he’s mostly struggled to hold down a place.

Discussing the Sterling deal, Neville has claimed that the 30-year-old was probably targeted by Arteta to provide cover in a number of positions.

However, with the Spanish tactician ending up barely using Sterling, it could be that Arsenal were unsure about backing their manager again with a similar deal to cover for their injured attacking players in January.

That’s what Neville thinks may have gone on, suggesting that the Sterling deal perhaps ended up being a mistake that led to a certain amount of friction behind the scenes at the Emirates Stadium.

Raheem Sterling transfer looks like a major blunder by Arsenal and Mikel Arteta

Raheem Sterling in action for Arsenal against West Ham (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

“Do you know what I think they’ve done? In the last part of the summer transfer window, I’m not sure Arsenal wanted to sign Raheem Sterling,” Neville said on The Overlap.

“I’m not sure Arsenal, as a club, wanted him. I think Arteta’s thought Sterling can play in all the positions up top and has basically told the club to get him in as cover.

“I think that’s what he said. He can play across the frontline so Arteta has looked at him as his second or third striker.

“They’ve ended up backing him and I think that’s put them off doing another deal in January of the same ilk because they’re thinking we brought Sterling in and Arteta hasn’t really used him.”

Sterling has had a great career, spending his peak years enjoying plenty of success at Manchester City, but he looks very much like he’s well past his best now and AFC must have some regrets about bringing him in.