‘Studge’ moved to Chelsea on a free transfer early in the close season and indeed was the first signing under Carlo Ancelotti, although Blue Tinted can reveal our sources confirm the club had been tracking Sturridge and Adam Johnson for a prolonged period monitoring their progress closely.
As was widely reported at the time, the young forward opted to reject contract offers from Manchester City in order to join Chelsea on a free transfer.
Daniel had been offered anywhere between £35,000-£55,000 a week to stay at Eastlands, with then-manager and Ex-Chelsea legend Mark Hughes admitting this was a clear play to retain one of their clubs brightest prospects. The player however had different ideas and in order to further his sporting ambitions, joined Chelsea.
An under-reported fact in this transfer was confirmed by Daniel in his very first press conference with the club was the revelation that in joining Chelsea he had accepted lower terms in his salary agreement.
The draw of Champions League football, global exposure and the respect drawn by a club serially challenging for major silverwear every season obviously replaced the extra pounds left out of his City offer.
It has been speculated that City’s attempt to sign John Terry from Chelsea in the summer was in no small way directed towards retaining Sturridge, who cited his pride at playing with respected senior England internationals such as John Terry, Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole and Joe Cole. Title winners.
So, on to the tribunal. The point of this exercise was to compensate Manchester City for the time, energy and money they had poured into the player who’s boot consigned Chelsea Academy to defeat in the FA Youth Cup not too many months ago. Quite rightly, of course, they were owed.
Manchester City cited Sturridge’s contract, the fees received for the likes of Theo Walcott etc in coming up with their valuation of Sturridge, an out of contract player, still being worth £10million to them. Chelsea were prepared to pay £3million, up front, to close the matter.
The tribunal ruling has seen an up-front payment of £3.5million to Manchester City from Chelsea, to be bolstered by performance related increments based upon appearances and goals scored. The sum total of these increments amounts to another £750,000 – if Sturridge satisfies every criteria in the agreement, including a senior England international call-up for a competitive tournament before the age of 23.
Chelsea have stated they are pleased with the outcome, and so they should be – having only been told to pay a small amount more than they had offered.
Manchester City had been hoping for more from the ruling, having wasted a large fee on Roque Santa Cruz who has failed entirely to produce at the club, the extremely erratic nature of Emmanuel Adebayor, his time at Arsenal being marred by long periods of dire performances not to mention his recently being photographed in an Arsenal shirt and having commented off-record he misses his days with our north London rivals. Then of course the ongoing under-performance and disruption caused by Robinho has given the club further concern in their assessment of the squad, having cost upwards of £30million the Brazilian has been out-performed in his time at Manchester City by other Premier League stars such as James Beattie, Cameron Jerome and Bobby Zamora. This further compounding the players continued courting Barcelona in his quest to leave the club he signed for by mistake.
For Chelsea, though, Manchester City’s increasing ability to build their global profile as imbécile incompetent has cast no shadow on our welcoming the end of a saga involving one of our prized young assets and wish Daniel a long and trophy-laden career with the club he chose.
Welcome to Chelsea, Daniel. You can be big now.