Chelsea hoped to reach an agreement but their £3m offer has been rejected.
Sturridge stunned City by demanding £55,000 a week to sign a new contract at Eastlands, leaving Chelsea and Aston Villa to fight for his signature.
He made 16 Premier League appearances last season and scored four goals but Chelsea sporting director Frank Arnesen has been after him for three years.
City are expected to make a claim for a down-payment in excess of £5m and propose that the remainder of the money comes in performance-related instalments.
It's not a surprise, but we should find out some more details later this evening or in tomorrow's newspapers.
UPDATE: SkySports.com now 'understands' that Chelsea have 'won the race' to sign Sturridge, which suggests that an arrangement is in place even if we'll have to wait a while to see him on TV holding up that atrocious new adidas home shirt Chelsea have. Come to think of it, it ought to happen on July 1, the day when a certain Argentine forward is allegedly set to join us. Which would make the departure of Sturridge feel like a non-event.
6 comments:
When he was coming throough the youth set up I followed DS's career with interest. I still have an old video recording somewhere of him scoring a sublime goal against Wales for England schoolboys. Now I could not care less about him. His uncles have a lot to answer for ... he and they are so so greedy. Good riddance.
Although his prospects of playing at City diminish with every new striker, I just don't understand why Sturridge is moving to a club where he'll get even less football. And surely Chelsea aren't offering him the £2.8m a year that City baulked at.
Good riddance. Rot in the reserves at Chelski you ill-informed, greedy, little boy.
Who?
Let's be honest about this. Losing one of our best academy graduates to Chelsea, again, really hurts. I just cannot understand why Sturridge did this. Does anyone know if Chelsea really are paying him £55k pw?
This move strikes me as bizarre. Why would Chelsea, who seem to have curtailed much of their previous profligate spending (even if this may change over the summer), be interested in Daniel Sturridge?
Sturridge is undeniably a real talent, but has not done enough to justify his exhorbitant wage demands at City. Moreover, those demands demonstrate a nasty, spoilt streak (-a trait that hardly needs enhancing in the Stamford Bridge dressing room). In paying that much to him, I can only imagine that Ancelotti sees him playing an important role in future Chelsea sides. Perhaps also more quickly than any of us can envisage.
I echo other commenters: good riddance. But, I cannot help feeling there is more to this than meets the eye.
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