S Poddar
Chelsea’s new head coach, Enzo Maresca, has made a very radical decision to let go of England internationals Raheem Sterling and Ben Chilwell. The players have been told that they do not feature in his plans for the new season and are training separately from the rest.
Sterling, who moved from Manchester City to Chelsea just two years ago for a big fee, was told beforehand of the decision of the club’s loss to the Premier League champions. Chilwell has also been informed he is free to look for a move away from Stamford Bridge.
Maresca has divided his squad into two groups, one that basically makes 21 or 22 players with who he plans to work day to day with and another group carrying excess baggage in the form of fringe players including Trevoh Chalobah.
“Chilwell and Sterling are training separately,” Maresca explained. “The situation with them both is very clear. We’ve got a big squad, so it’s impossible for me to give playing time to everyone. If they want minutes, maybe it’s best to leave.”
Chelsea has already spent around £200m over the summer signing their new recruits. The last one happened to be from Atletico Madrid—Joao Felix. Felix joins Pedro Neto, brought in to compete with Sterling basically for playing time on the wing. Ironically, Neto will be getting Sterling’s number seven shirt, making it clearer that at this club, Sterling is reduced to a vestigial stature.
Sterling’s advisers, meanwhile, have broken their silence and conceded they would like “clarity” on his future after claims that Sterling had been at the centre of the club pre-season tour and the build-up in the media to the game against Manchester City. But by now, it was already apparent that at Chelsea, his career was effectively over.
“I’m not saying Raheem is not a good player,” Maresca said. “But I prefer a different type of winger. I just tried to be honest. I spoke to Raheem before the City game and told him he would struggle for games with us.”
Meanwhile, the situation with Chilwell saw Maresca be a bit more forthcoming. “I told Chilwell that he’s a great guy but he would struggle. If you think that’s brutal, then so be it. I’m not working with 42 players. That is from exterior. I’m working with 21 players. The other 15 or 20 are training separately.”
Maresca underlined that the situation is not as chaotic as it looks from the outside. “It’s not a mess like it looks from the outside, absolutely not,” he said. “You like to say that we have 43 players but more than 15 are training apart. They are not with the team.”
He also added his sentiment to the loss of Conor Gallagher to Atletico Madrid for £34 million. A player with conspicuousness who captained most of last season, Maresca feels he is not short of options to cover at loggerheads with the 24-year-old.
