Could the transfer of Raheem Sterling in place of Jadon Sancho solve the problems of Chelsea and Manchester United teams?

Manchester United and Chelsea appear set to solve each other’s England international winger problems, at least in the short term, but whether the potential departures of Raheem Sterling or Jadon Sancho will do more than heal cracks is not immediately clear.

United and Chelsea are said to be discussing a potential deal that would see Sancho move to Stamford Bridge while Sterling goes in the opposite direction. Both forwards are out of the first-team picture at their current clubs and the poor relationship between management and player suggests a reconciliation is highly unlikely.

Indeed, Sterling is not even a member of the first team at the moment, stripped of his No. 7 shirt and training separately with a larger group that Chelsea are attempting to move ahead of Friday’s transfer deadline. Sancho’s situation is not as extreme – he and Erik ten Hag made amends in the summer after a very public disagreement over the player’s training performances 12 months ago – but the 24-year-old is not included in any of the squads for United’s first two Premier League games.

The details of the deal have yet to be made clear, but both clubs will be extremely happy to free themselves of the remaining years of some of their more expensive contracts. In early July, the remaining cost of Sancho’s deal was estimated at around $65 million, with Sterling’s three-year contract set to add over $100 million to Chelsea’s books. Perhaps this presents a compelling case for both of these clubs, that a swap deal like this executed as two separate transactions is an extremely effective way to overcome any PSR issues these two may have at the end of the season.

Nevertheless, transfers made for financial rather than footballing reasons do not provide any particular benefit to the clubs’ core business: winning football matches on the field.

Maybe it could be different. Both Sancho and Sterling can provide support to the other side Some? What they need. United desperately lacked an attacking punch last season and signing Joshua Zirkzee might fill that void. Sterling may not produce the same high-grade output as his best years in a Manchester City jersey – he has averaged 0.7 non-penalty expected goals and expected goals assisted (npxG+xAG) in four of his last five seasons – but 0.5 npxG+xAG cannot be ignored, especially in a Chelsea team that took so long to get going in 2023.

Meanwhile, Sancho showed signs during his half-season on loan at Borussia Dortmund that the player every elite club in Europe wants in his 20s can still be found. If Chelsea get a game as good as the first leg of the Champions League semi-final, almost any realistic deal for Sancho would be a smart one.

That is the best-case scenario. Much of United and Chelsea’s recent business suggests it would be naive to assume such events will occur. United have been in this position many times before, committing to the decline of an experienced player who they think can get them to the top in the short term (though even the rosiest of eyes at Old Trafford would conclude it would be in the top four rather than the title race) only to very quickly find it financially unwieldy.

For Chelsea, the reason Sterling has become a headache for them is that they have a steady pool of talent who can play on the left flank. Either they swap one England international for another from the so-called bomb squad or Sancho catches Enzo Maresca’s eye and they are under pressure to move on from another player signed for big money to a long-term contract. Cutting a few million off their annual squad costs wouldn’t be a bad thing, but it’s not a move that will change their football horizon.

Sancho and Sterling have a long way to go in the short term if they are to switch places, but it’s easy to see why a move out of such a difficult environment could be what appeals to both. Add in the prospect of cleaning up accounts at Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge and you probably have enough of a case to make a deal happen, even if there’s a fairly limited chance that either player changes the trajectory of Manchester United and Chelsea’s football.