Chelsea could start negotiations this week for a deal for Manchester City and England forward Raheem Sterling, according to Dean Jones.

The 27-year-old has just come off the back of a title winning season with Manchester City, but has been linked with a move to west London this summer.

GiveMeSport Transfer Update With Dean Jones

GiveMeSport Transfer Update With Dean Jones

What’s the latest on Sterling?

According to Fabrizio Romano, there is a positive feeling around Chelsea that a deal can be struck with City, who are prepared to let Sterling leave.

The same tweet also suggests that the player is also happy for the move to go through.

Romano has also previously suggested that the Manchester club would want between €55/60m (£47.5/51.8m) to let the 77-cap England international leave the Etihad Stadium.

Both clubs will want to get the deal done as soon as possible, with clubs returning to pre-season ahead of the Premier League campaign in August, and Jones believes that negotiations could begin this week.

What has Jones said about Sterling?

He told GIVEMESPORT: “I think negotiations will move forward this week around Raheem Sterling and they'll see whether that deal can be done.”

Will Sterling join Chelsea

It seems increasingly likely with both Jones and Romano’s updates that Sterling, described by current boss Pep Guardiola as “sensational” after a 2-1 victory at Aston Villa last season, will be a Chelsea player come the start of the Premier League campaign, and you can see why fans of the west London side would be excited to have the former Liverpool man at the club.

The four-time Premier League winner scored 17 goals and provided nine assists in 47 appearances in all competitions last season according to Transfermarkt - while he has a career record of 154 goals - suggesting that the England man is capable of both scoring and creating goals on a consistent basis.

The 5 foot 7 attacker compares favourably amongst his fellow attacking midfielders/wingers, ranking in the top 8% across Europe’s top five leagues for non-penalty goals scored over the course of the last season per 90 minutes (0.46), whilst ranking in the top 2% for touches in the attacking penalty area per 90 (8.59), according to FBref.

The same stats provider suggests that he also has an exceptional pass completion record per 90 minutes when compared with forwards, ranking in the top 1% with a completion rate of 83.5%.

An average SofaScore rating of 7.05 for the last Premier League season suggests that the City forward has performed to a high standard on a regular basis, when called upon by Guardiola over the last campaign.

With both clubs seemingly happy to get the deal over the line, both sides will hope to get the deal done as quickly as possible, so that the pair of them can move on to other targets this summer.