What’s next for Raheem Sterling? Why Chelsea exile feels he has three more years at the top level, the Premier League side that’s an ‘excellent fit’, the country he’s not prepared to play in and the drop in wages he’ll accept

As he emerged from the unremittingly bleak last six months of his professional exile at Chelsea on Thursday, Raheem Sterling’s friends were encouraging him to get away from the UK for a week or two, to clear his head of the joyless torpor that Stamford Bridge had become.

They were surprised to find that he had a wish to get straight back into the game, having missed being part of a team while in permanent exile in a one-man Chelsea ‘bomb squad’.

He is optimistic that he can flourish again, as a 31-year-old free agent, and believes he has another successful two or three-year chapter left in him. He has a realism about his days of six-figure weekly salaries being over and is now looking, above all, for a club who can offer him a sense of security, stability and belonging.

As of Thursday afternoon, eight ‘Champions League level’ clubs had made initial expressions of interest in Sterling, who is open to offers from the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A and France’s Ligue 1. The United States is not a desired location for him, because he still wants elite football. He categorically does not want to play in Saudi Arabia, where Chelsea unsuccessfully tried to dump him.

It is a source of relief to Sterling that his future is no longer contingent on loan deals. It was the casual and impermanent nature of those deals which has made him reluctant about them in the past two summers.

Approaches last summer from Napoli and from his former team-mate and friend Vincent Kompany at Bayern Munich came so late that the prospects seemed too fragile to upend his family and take his children out of schools.

The winger, still only 31, feels he has three more years in him at the highest level

Though Sterling knew from the start that he was only back-up for Bukayo Saka on loan at Arsenal, he also had a sense that his game time there was dictated by the fact that the club were paying only a fifth of his wages. He also struggled to find his old pace.

At his next club, whether here or in Europe, Sterling can belong once more – and bring good value, given there is no transfer fee attached. The very full life he has built in London – his charitable foundation is there and his son, Thiago, is in Arsenal’s youth set-up – would make Fulham an extremely good fit. 

Their appeal includes the presence of an excellent, secure manager in Marco Silva. Fulham expressed interest in taking Sterling on loan, the summer before last, but couldn’t agree terms with Chelsea.

The Cottagers have just agreed a £27million deal to sign Oscar Bobb from Manchester City, though the prospect of paying Sterling wages perhaps as modest as £60,000 a week could still make him attractive. 

Especially since it seems increasingly likely that Harry Wilson will leave Fulham as a free agent at the end of the season. That could open a door for Sterling, albeit not immediately.

Another possible destination could be Everton, where the attraction for Sterling would be the presence of David Moyes. Jack Grealish, another player who was seeking a new start last summer, has benefitted from working under Moyes, though his fractured foot creates the need for reinforcements. Everton are not over-endowed with strikers and Sterling could be a very good fit.

Burnley are likely to be interested, given Scott Parker’s search for experienced Premier League pros like Kyle Walker to keep the club up. 

Crystal Palace are another side who, through former sporting director Dougie Freeman, have expressed interest in Sterling in the past. But with Oliver Glasner’s departure this summer and so many of the club’s best players sold, Palace don’t seem to provide the sense of stability that Sterling craves.

Though Sterling knew from the start that he was only back-up for Bukayo Saka on loan at Arsenal, he also had a sense that his game time there was dictated by the fact that the club were paying only a fifth of his wages

Sterling would happily play abroad, in Europe’s top leagues, but the MLS and Saudi Arabia are not on his radar

European football is also something Sterling would certainly consider. Quotes attributed to Napoli’s sporting director Giovanni Manna on Wednesday night, in which he described the player’s ‘significant financial expectations’, are puzzling, given that there has been no discussion of what salary he would want if he signed for the Serie A champions. 

Manna’s observations appear to relate to the loan deal talks with Chelsea. Napoli certainly would offer great personal appeal to Sterling, given how close he and his family were to the De Bruynes, during his and Kevin’s time together at City.

It will be 250 days on Friday since Sterling last started a Premier League game, for Arsenal against Southampton. He is way short of match fitness.

Yet his appetite for the game appears surprisingly unaffected. He has won 10 trophies, played for the four top Premier League sides of the modern era and is desperate to start again. ‘Stability and security are the priority,’ one source said yesterday. After working under eight managers, including interims, during three-and-a-half years of hell at Chelsea, that would be a novelty.