United and Chelsea in talks over Sterling-Sancho swap deal

Manchester United have held talks with Chelsea over a possible swap deal involving Raheem Sterling and Jadon Sancho, with the west London club also offering Ben Chilwell to their Premier League rivals.
Discussions over Sterling and Sancho are at an early stage, but it is understood the deal is contingent on both players agreeing to move in the opposite direction.
The Times understands that Sterling, who supported United growing up, is keen on a move to Old Trafford. Discussions have been held among the club’s hierarchy about Sterling over the past few days after it emerged that he was surplus to requirements at Chelsea, and Dan Ashworth, the newly appointed United sporting director, is particularly enthusiastic about a deal.
Sterling, 29, is training away from the Chelsea squad after being told by Enzo Maresca, the head coach, that he is not in his plans for the season. There are multiple obstacles for both clubs to negotiate, and swap deals are sometimes difficult to arrange because of complications over wages and agents’ fees. If both players agree to switch, each transfer is likely to be recorded as a separate deal.
It also has to be determined whether Sancho wants to join Chelsea. The London club have more than 40 players on their books, many of them attacking midfielders, a surplus of talent that led to Sterling being told he could leave. Pedro Neto, Christopher Nkunku, Mykhailo Mudryk and Noni Madueke are Maresca’s other wingers, while Cole Palmer and Joao Félix can also play out wide.
Another potential problem is that Sterling has three years remaining on his Chelsea contract, which is said to be worth about £325,000 a week. Sancho is paid a similar amount but he has two years remaining on his deal with United, which he signed when he joined from Borussia Dortmund for a £73million fee three years ago.
Sancho, 24, was loaned to Dortmund last season after falling out with Erik ten Hag, the United manager. He was included on the club’s pre-season tour but United have always maintained that they will not stand in his way if a good offer comes in, and Juventus have been looking into the prospect of taking him on loan.
Valued at about £40million by United, Sancho was left out of the squad for the first two matches of the Premier League season, against Fulham and Brighton & Hove Albion. Ten Hag said that he was absent from the Fulham game because of an ear infection.
Sterling won four Premier League titles, one FA Cup and five League Cups during a seven-year spell with United’s local rivals City. He won the Football Writers’ Association footballer of the year award in 2019, but two years later he fell down the pecking order and was sold to Chelsea for £47.5million.
While at City, Sterling admitted that he supported United growing up. “I shouldn’t really say this — not now, definitely not now — but when I was young I was a massive United fan,” he said. “I had an old United kit, from when they won the last FA Cup. I was at the final in 2007.”
Chelsea have also offered the left back Chilwell to United, whose senior players in that position, Luke Shaw and Tyrell Malacia, have both been plagued with injuries. United’s selection problems have been eased by the signing of Noussair Mazraoui from Bayern Munich, who can play at left back but — like Diogo Dalot, who has provided cover in that position — he is primarily a right back.
Chelsea are exploring a potential move for the Brentford striker Ivan Toney.
The club are considering a number of forward options and have encountered difficulties in completing a loan move for the Napoli striker Victor Osimhen.
Part of Chelsea’s strategy is to offload their higher-earning players and reorganise their wage structure, with fewer players on high salaries.
Their interest in Toney, while tentative, is complicated by the fact that the 28-year-old has already agreed personal terms with the Saudi Pro League side Al-Ahli. However, a deal between the clubs is still to be struck.
Al-Ahli’s initial proposal a fortnight ago was about £35 million — well below the fee Brentford expected. They hope to raise about £50 million from the sale of the striker, who has entered the final year of his contract.
Before the start of the summer, Brentford had hoped to start an auction for Toney, with opening bids of about £70million, but revised their expectations downwards after a lack of interest early on.
The deadline for transfers in Europe’s top five leagues is Friday, August 30, while clubs in the Saudi Pro League are permitted to buy players from abroad up to Monday, September 2, which hastens Brentford’s desire for a resolution to be found by the end of this week.
Should Toney still be at Brentford come the end of Friday, the club will be left with one bidder and the risk of losing the striker on a free transfer deal, which could be struck in January.
Meanwhile, Romelu Lukaku’s £25.3million move to Napoli should still be completed after an issue related to the Chelsea forward’s image rights was resolved.
Faustino Anjorin, the 22-year-old midfielder, is expected to move to Empoli from Chelsea. He played for England at youth levels and his only Premier League league appearance was in 2020, since when he has had three separate loans, including to Portsmouth last season. Anjorin is among 15 players that Chelsea want to offload by Friday.
Newcastle United have made an offer of up to £70million for Marc Guéhi to Crystal Palace, who are set to sign Eddie Nketiah for £30million from Arsenal.
Newcastle’s offer is unusual in that they have been willing to pay £65million up front to Palace rather than spreading payments over several years, which is the norm for most transfers of this size. There would be an additional £5million in add-ons.
Newcastle have had several offers rejected for Guéhi, who starred for England at Euro 2024. He has two years left on his contract and is unlikely to sign a new one, which has given Palace a significant decision to make as they sold Joachim Andersen, also a centre back, to Fulham for £30million.
Oliver Glasner, the Palace manager, has said that he would need replacements. His club have bid for Maxence Lacroix, who played under Glasner at Wolfsburg, and Tomás Araújo, the Benfica centre back, and they could try to sign Trevoh Chalobah, who is surplus to requirements at Chelsea.
Palace are finally set to land Nketiah, two years after the forward rejected a move when his contract was about to expire at Arsenal.
The 25-year-old was persuaded to stay at Arsenal and sign a five-year deal, worth £100,000 a week, in the belief that he could earn a regular starting place. Things never quite worked out and he started only ten of his 27 league matches last season, scoring five times. Overall he has scored 19 times in 116 league matches for Arsenal since coming through the club’s academy.
Nketiah’s proposed move to Marseille collapsed when they were unwilling to meet Arsenal’s valuation last month and he could not agree terms with Nottingham Forest. He was called up by England for the first time last summer and made his debut as a substitute in a 1–0 home win over Australia in a friendly in October last year.
Wolverhampton Wanderers are, meanwhile, close to agreeing a £10million deal for the Crystal Palace goalkeeper Sam Johnstone, 31.
Southampton have resurrected interest in the Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale after their proposed transfer of Justin Bijlow was cancelled because of concerns about a previous injury raised during his medical.
There are some obstacles in the way of a deal, however, with Ramsdale not keen to move to the south coast and Arsenal preferring a permanent transfer rather than the loan that has been suggested. Wolverhampton Wanderers have previously shown interest in the player and Ajax had a loan offer rejected by Arsenal. The north London club want to recoup the £24million paid to Sheffield United in 2021.
Ramsdale, 26, has a contract until 2026 with the option of a further season. He wants to play regularly and Arsenal have lined up Joan García, the 23-year-old Espanyol goalkeeper who has played for Spain at youth level, as a possible replacement.
Southampton would prefer to sign a goalkeeper on loan as Gavin Bazunu will return from an achilles injury next year. Bijlow, the 26-year-old Feyenoord and Netherlands goalkeeper, had a medical at Southampton and took the unusual step of explaining the reasons for the deal collapsing on Instagram. “I was preparing for departure from Feyenoord,” Bijlow wrote. “I didn’t find that easy and it wasn’t my first choice, but it had to be for the sake of my career.
“The medical examination has shown that Southampton has a different vision than Feyenoord on how to treat an old injury. I’m fully fit and this doesn’t bother me, but I respect the vision of Southampton medical staff.”
João Cancelo has completed his £21million transfer from Manchester City to the Saudi club Al-Hilal.
The full back, 30, has signed a three-year contract worth roughly £15million a year.
Cancelo has not played for City since 2022, when he fell out with Pep Guardiola, the manager, over a lack of game time. He was subsequently loaned to Bayern Munich and then Barcelona, but neither club could agree a transfer fee for the Portugal international. Guardiola, however, decided there was no place for him within the City squad this season so he has been sold to Al-Hilal three years before his contract at the Etihad Stadium was due to expire.
Cancelo joined City from Juventus in the summer of 2019 and made 154 appearances for the club. Director of football Txiki Begiristain, said: “He made a big impact in title-winning campaigns and was a huge influence on the pitch.”
Arsenal have also offloaded Fábio Vieira on loan to Porto, two years after the midfielder joined for £34million from the Portuguese club. He has been replaced by Mikel Merino, who has moved for £31.6million from Real Sociedad.
Arsenal will pay an initial £27.4million plus £4.2million in add-ons for the Spain midfielder, who won more duels than any other player across Europe’s top five leagues last season. He also won more aerial duels than any other midfielder in Europe’s top five leagues last season.
Mikel Arteta has steadily tweaked his Arsenal squad to be more physical and taller, notably since they lost 4-1 away to Manchester City in April last year. Merino, who is 6ft 2in, can play as a holding midfielder or No8 on the left of midfield, where he spent the majority of his time at Sociedad.
Merino, who has signed a four-year deal with the option of a further season, could play with or as an alternative to Declan Rice.
Merino featured in all seven of Spain’s matches in their victorious Euro 2024 campaign, mostly as a substitute, scoring a late winner against Germany in the quarter-finals.
At the age of 21 he spent one season at Newcastle United, joining initially on loan from Borussia Dortmund. Fourteen of his 24 league appearances were starts and he lost his place after the new year. He joined Sociedad because of a relatively low release clause of £10.5million in 2018.