Ally McCoist reacts as Jeff Stelling suggests Raheem Sterling should join Celtic if he leaves Chelsea

Add as preferred source on Google

With the transfer window due to close in under two weeks, Brendan Rodgers still has a bit of work to do to strengthen his Celtic team for the upcoming Champions League campaign.

The Celtic boss has already added four players to his ranks after the capture of Viljami Sinisalo, Kasper Schmeichel and the returning former loanees, Paulo Bernardo and £9.5m man, Adam Idah.

With Rodgers still needing to strengthen other key areas of the team, Jeff Stelling suggested that Celtic could be a destination for Chelsea forward, Raheem Sterling.

Chelsea attacker put forward for Celtic move

There has been a bit of a furore created over Sterling’s Chelsea future after the 29-year-old was left out of Chelsea’s matchday squad in the 2-0 defeat to Man City.

Speaking on talkSPORT about the future of the Chelsea winger, Stelling was reading out a message about Sterling joining Rangers and he brilliantly dismissed the suggestion.

Stelling said, “Raheem Sterling should sign for Rangers…I’m not going to read the rest of this, but what about Celtic?”

It’s a move that would certainly excite the Celtic fans but Ally McCoist reckons that the England international will end up abroad.

McCoist: “Brendan knows him, but I think he’d see it as a step down. I don’t think so – I think if he’s leaving the country, he’s going to Saudi Arabia.”

Raheem Sterling to Celtic is a non-starter

Celtic are cash-rich. The Parkhead club is the wealthiest in Scotland but even the most ardent Celtic fan would know that signing Sterling would be a step too far for their club.

Costing Chelsea £47.5m in 2022, if he was allowed to leave the Premier League club, they would be looking to recoup some of that huge fee to help comply with FFP rules.

Even a loan move would be a bridge that Celtic couldn’t cross. According to Spotrac, Sterling is on an eye-watering £325,000 per week at Chelsea making him the club’s equal top earner alongside Romelu Lukaku.

With a contract taking him to 2027, the ball is in Sterling’s court and even if he did want to make the move to Glasgow, Celtic could never afford to pay his wages unless he agreed to take at least a 90% cut to come to Paradise.