Can a Raheem Sterling for Jadon Sancho transfer swap solve the problems with Chelsea and Man United's squads?

Manchester United and Chelsea could be about to solve each other's England international winger shaped problems, at least in the short term, but whether the potential departures of either Raheem Sterling or Jadon Sancho do much more than paper over the cracks is not immediately apparent.

United and Chelsea are said to be discussing a potential deal that would take Sancho to Stamford Bridge while Sterling heads in the opposite direction. Both forwards are out of the first team picture at their current clubs and bad blood between management and player suggest there is little prospect of rapprochement.

Indeed, Sterling is not even a member of the first team squad at the moment, stripped of his No.7 shirt and training separately with a sizeable group that Chelsea are attempting to move on before Friday's transfer deadline. Sancho's situation is not quite as extreme -- he and Erik ten Hag made amends in the summer after a very public disagreement over the player's training performances 12 months ago -- but the 24-year-old has not been involved in either squad for United's first two Premier League games.

The particulars of the deal remain to be clarified, but both clubs would be extremely happy to get themselves off the hook for the remaining years of some of their more expensive contracts. At the start of July, the remaining cost of Sancho's deal was estimated at around $65 million, Sterling's three years scheduled to add over $100 million to Chelsea's books. Perhaps that offers the compelling case for these two clubs, that this sort of swap deal executed as two separate transactions is an extremely effective way of ironing out any PSR issues that these two could have on their books come the end of the season.

Then again, transfers made for financial rather than footballing reasons tend not to offer particularly significant benefits to what really ought to be the core business of clubs: winning football matches on the pitch.

Perhaps this might be different. Both Sancho and Sterling could provide the other side with something of what they need. United were desperately short of attacking punch last season and the signing of Joshua Zirkzee may only go so far to addressing that. Sterling may not offer the same high grade output of his best years in a Manchester City shirt -- in four of his last five seasons he averaged over 0.7 non-penalty expected goals and expected goals assisted (npxG+xAG) -- but 0.5 npxG+xAG is not to be sniffed at, particularly in a Chelsea side that took so long to get going in 2023.

Sancho, meanwhile, offered hints in his half season spell on loan at Borussia Dortmund that the player who every elite club in Europe coveted in his early 20s could still be unearthed. If Chelsea got a handful of games as good as the first leg of the Champions League semifinal then almost any realistic deal for Sancho would be a shrewd one.

That is the best case scenario. Most of United and Chelsea's recent business suggest that it is unwise to assume that such events will come to pass. United have been here before often enough, committing to managing the decline of a veteran who they convince themselves might get them over the top in the short term (though even the most rose-tinted of spectacles at Old Trafford would have to conclude that would be in a top four rather than title race) but quite quickly proves to be a drain on the finances.

As for Chelsea, the reason that Sterling has become such a headache for them is because of their relentless accumulation of talent that can play on the left flank. Either they swap out one England international in the so-called bomb squad for another or Sancho catches the eye of Enzo Maresca and they are under pressure to move on from another player signed for big money to a long term term contract. Trimming their annual squad cost by a few million would not be a bad thing but it is not the sort of move that transforms their footballing horizons.

There remains a long way to go in a short amount of time if Sancho and Sterling are to trade places but it is easy to see why simply being out of such a trying environment might appeal to both men. Add in the prospect of tidying up the books at Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge and you perhaps have enough of a case to do the deal anyway, regardless of the fairly limited prospect that either player changes the footballing trajectory of Manchester United and Chelsea.