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In Rafa Benítez’s first season in English football, he rested Steven Gerrard for an FA Cup tie at Burnley, who were in the Championship. When Liverpool lost, there was a predictable backlash and, from certain quarters, derision as Benítez explained his rotation policy and the need to manage the number of minutes each player played.
Social media being in its infancy, it wasn’t quite the culture war that it would have become today, but certain old-school football men clearly felt that players should just get on with it: hard work never hurt anyone. But at the same time a piece of ancient wisdom kept surfacing, usually from elderly coaches who had spent a lifetime in the game: as a rule of thumb, however much they play, whatever age they start, a player has 500 games in them.
Raheem Sterling’s 500th senior appearance came in Manchester City’s 2-0 Champions League defeat by Paris Saint-Germain on 28 September 2021. Obviously, the figure of 500 is a guide. This isn’t Blade Runner: no one is turning players off when they hit 500. Sterling’s 499th appearance had been as an 87th-minute substitute against Chelsea the previous weekend: how significant, really, were those few minutes? Sterling was 27 when he got to 500. He has played 151 games since. But in how many of those has he played well?
City won the league in 2021-22 and reached the semi-finals of both the FA Cup and Champions League. Sterling played in fewer games than he had in any previous Premier League season for City, but only just. He still scored 13 league goals. There were no great alarm bells ringing. But Pep Guardiola had evidently seen something, some diminution of the hunger, some fractional loss of acceleration, some infinitesimal leadening of the touch. At the end of that season, City sold him to Chelsea for £47.5m.
Sterling was the first of the legions to sign for Chelsea under Todd Boehly. Thomas Tuchel was still the manager. Goodness knows what sort of vision of the club was sold to his agent as negotiations were conducted via scribbled-on napkins in a members’ club in London. But it’s unlikely either Sterling or his agent realised there would be 41 further signings in the following two and a half years (a figure that includes João Félix twice).
Sterling did not have an easy start but he did score twice in a win over Leicester. Then Tuchel was sacked after a month and so the long, slow drift into confusion began, the hop from Graham Potter to Frank Lampard to Mauricio Pochettino to Enzo Maresca. Did any of them have a clear vision for Sterling as he moved into his late 20s, his notional peak?
His indifferent form could at first be attributed to Chelsea’s struggles. It was only at the World Cup that winter that the extent of his drop-off became apparent. Sterling had been England’s most effective attacking player at the Euros in the summer of 2021. But in Qatar he was largely ineffective. He was withdrawn in the group games against Iran and the USA, rested against Wales and then missed the last-16 game against Senegal as he returned to London after a break-in at the family home.
What was remarkable was how, from a football point of view, it didn’t seem much to matter. Sterling returned but Phil Foden retained his place for the quarter-final. He came on for the final 12 minutes, but has never played for England since, the star of one tournament becoming obsolete within 18 months.
Thereafter his club form has been, at best, indifferent. There was a persistent hamstring problem that ruined the months after the World Cup, since when there have been regular social media posts showing him training harder than ever, running up hills with the army to try to redevelop his sprinting speed. There has been no suggestion that his focus or commitment has waned at all. And yet results on the pitch have not been good.
Maresca gave him some part in every pre-season match last summer and then left him out of the match‑day squad for the opening game of this season against Manchester City, prompting Sterling’s statement expressing bewilderment about how he had been treated. Which may not have been the best way to go about showing his dismay, but it’s easy to see why he was confused, why he felt let down by the continuing chaos at Chelsea, the constant changing of ideas, the flux of players and managers, the way he had even tried to play at wing-back to make it work, only to be ostracised as a new season began.
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As it turns out, Maresca’s judgment, however ruthless he may have appeared, whatever could have been improved in terms of communication, has been proved sound. Mikel Arteta had worked with Sterling at City, had helped refine and hone his talent, but he could not reawaken it. The idea of Sterling was good; Arsenal have needed somebody to relieve the burden on Bukayo Saka for years. But it hasn’t worked: Sterling has managed only 310 minutes of league football this season.
Even in the past two games, with four other forwards out, Sterling has been given a total of just 24 minutes off the bench. Arteta preferred to start at centre-forward a midfielder who had not played the role since he was nine rather than risk Sterling for another full game on the flank to allow Leandro Trossard to play through the centre.
There was something deeply uncomfortable when, in injury time against West Ham last Saturday, Arsenal got a free-kick just outside the box and Sterling rather than Martin Ødegaard went to take it. His confidence is shot; it was inevitable that the opportunity would be wasted.
His decline has been startling; when the body starts to go, everything else that sustains a player at the highest level tails off too. It’s a reminder of just how high a level Premier League footballers habitually operate at, just how fragile their excellence often is, how quickly a small decline can become a huge one. Sterling is only 30, but it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that, at the highest level, he is finished. The law of 500 has struck again.
