Raheem Sterling is leaving Manchester City for the same reason as he joined seven years ago: personal ambition and the belief that he can be better elsewhere.
The difference is that while he was laughed out of Anfield six years ago and mischaracterised as a money-grabbing flash-in-the-pan that could be easily replaced by a hurt Liverpool, he leaves the Etihad with a clutch of winners' medals and glorious memories after establishing himself not only as one of England's finest, but as one of the best players in City's history.
He will depart as a 'mosaic legend' as one fan brilliantly put it — not in the top tier of club greats such as Vincent Kompany or Colin Bell who have had statues commissioned outside the Etihad, but in the company of those on the rung below including Yaya Toure and Fernandinho who have a mosaic at the training ground in recognition of their contribution.
Also read: Raheem Sterling set for City exit after agreeing Chelsea terms
The numbers speak for themselves: a boy written off by many before he kicked a ball in blue managed 131 goals and 95 assists from 331 appearances for City. He departs for Chelsea five assists short of becoming the first player in club history to get both 100 goals and assists, but is already one of just three footballers — Sergio Aguero and Lionel Messi the other two — to score 100 goals under the greatest manager in the game in Pep Guardiola and made more appearances under the Catalan than any other Blue.
One of the traits Guardiola admired most about Sterling was his ability to put disappointments behind him, whether that was a miss on the pitch or when City tried to bring extra forwards into the squad — as they did in 2017 with Alexis Sanchez. When the City manager needed someone to score the goals to support Aguero in 2017, it was Sterling who found something extra in his game to lift the team to heights that English football had never seen before.
He was involved in important goals right until the end of his City career. The last-minute winner against Southampton in 2017 will always be fondly remembered and his goal at Bournemouth earlier that season gave the travelling Blues another big reason to enjoy a sunny bank holiday on the south coast, while it was his trickery that set up Ilkay Gundogan for the first goal against Aston Villa on the final day just gone to start a comeback when they looked dead and buried.
It was at City where Sterling found a home to raise and add to his family, and also where a boy that had been savaged in the media since his Liverpool departure fought back and changed the narrative. The 27-year-old took it upon himself (ironically after receiving abuse at Stamford Bridge) to highlight the unfair discrepancies between coverage of white and black English footballers and to speak up against any inequality that he saw.
Less well known is the time he took to welcome young City players into the first team squad. While he rarely wore the captain's armband, Sterling took Phil Foden, Jadon Sancho, Ian Carlo Poveda and Cole Palmer under his wing to give them advice for thriving on the pitch and dealing with the attention off it; he has done similar in the England camp. That is another void that the Blues will have to try and fill.
There were low points, as you might expect over the course of seven years. Sterling's confidence was on the floor when Guardiola arrived after an underwhelming first season at the club was followed by him being scapegoated for England's poor performance at Euro 2016, and his exclusion from big games in recent years is fundamental to his decision to leave.
His finishing also continues to divide viewers. Despite the impressive haul he has managed, an Amazon documentary of the team in the 2017/18 season highlighted Guardiola's uncertainty over Sterling's shooting after hauling him off at Burnley following a bad miss, while the chance he blazed over in the shock 2020 Champions League quarter-final defeat to Lyon is still hard for some fans to forget.
The sheer volume of Sterling's contribution to the club far outweighs all of that, though, and has led to the respectful way in which his exit has been negotiated with City. Guardiola admitted he could not give the player what he seeks in terms of always being integral enough to start the biggest games, and the club gave the player time to decide on whether that was enough for him; instead, he was convinced by Thomas Tuchel's plan for him and Chelsea's ambition under new owner Todd Boehly.
City will be sad to see him leave and would have been happy to keep him, but there is admiration that a player who has helped deliver them four Premier League titles in five years still isn't satisfied as well as pride at the player and role model that he has turned into at the Etihad.
No player is bigger than the club (or the manager) at City and they have recently successfully absorbed the departures of, for example, Leroy Sane and Ferran Torres. Sterling, though, will always be welcome in Manchester for everything he has given to the club from trusting them when he arrived to orchestrating his departure with total respect for City.
However much both parties are moving on, and whether or not he will be top of the league again, the latest mosaic legend at the Etihad will always be embedded into the story of a golden era in City's history.
READ NEXT:
