2 months ago
21 New Chelsea manager, Enzo Maresca, certainly doesn’t appear to be a man to be messed with, and he’s issued a chilling threat to the likes of Raheem Sterling and Trevoh Chalobah.
The Blues have a top-heavy first-team squad which the Italian has inherited, and whether it’s for Financial Fair Play reasons or otherwise, there are some players that are clearly surplus to requirements.
Enzo Maresca’s direct threat to Raheem Sterling
To Maresca’s credit, he hasn’t beaten around the bush with players and appears to have been straight with all of his playing staff as to their roles this season.
For the likes of Sterling et al there is no role at all, and if those players don’t get signed by other teams before the transfer window closes on Friday night, they’re set for a miserable existence for the next few months at least.
??? Enzo Maresca on Sterling, Chalobah and the others: “All the players who in this moment are training apart will NOT get any minutes in case they stay”.
“My advice to Sterling? He knows exactly what he has to do. It’s not just Raheem, all of them”. pic.twitter.com/iq6PxY9VHs
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 28, 2024
As CaughtOffside columnist and transfer expert, Fabrizio Romano, noted via X (formerly Twitter), there’ll be no olive branch held out to those players who aren’t part of his plans.
“All the players who in this moment are training apart will not get any minutes in case they stay,” Maresca was quoted as saying.
“My advice to Sterling? He knows exactly what he has to do. It’s not just Raheem, all of them.”
It’s as direct a threat as there’s possible to be, and it leaves no room whatsoever for misunderstandings.

 
What it does do of course is really pile the pressure on those players to find a new club within the last 48 hours of the window, which isn’t really enough time to be able to negotiate favourable terms etc.
Clearly, that’s of no concern whatsoever to Maresca, who will presumably keep Sterling and his fellow outcasts training away from the first-team group at Cobham if they don’t secure alternative employment by Saturday morning.
