Raheem Sterling knew how good Manchester City transfer target Mateo Kovacic was before he joined Chelsea.
Earlier this week, it was reported that the Manchester club have been in talks over a potential summer transfer deal for the midfielder.
This, however, has not been the first time someone connected with City has taken notice of how good the Chelsea figure is.
Sterling knew how good Kovacic is
Speaking to the Daily Mail back in November, Sterling had this to say when asked about which Chelsea players he was looking forward to playing with at the club.
He said: “Kovacic to be fair [is who I was most looking forward to linking up with at the club]. When we used to play him for City I used to think “Oh my good gosh” – I’m not going to lie. Kova[cic] for sure because there was a couple of times [when I was at City] when he was doing some serious stuff against us.”
Having featured against Pep Guardiola’s side 12 times in his career, Kovacic has only been on the winning side on four occasions, losing the other eight, which makes City the one club he has lost against more than any other team he’s faced.
This, therefore, may make a move to the Etihad Stadium a rather positive one for the midfielder, who cost Chelsea £40m to sign permanently back in 2019, and save him the trouble of losing against them again.
With the 29-year-old set to enter the final year of his contract at Stamford Bridge soon and reportedly having no interest in signing a new deal, this presumably makes it easier for the Premier League champions to potentially secure a move for him.
Bearing in mind how City could be seeing Ilkay Gundogan leave the club when his current contract expires at the end of the month, bringing in Kovacic could give them a potential replacement for the German should he decide to bring an end to his time at the Etihad Stadium.
