Maresca: I’m only working with 21 players – the rest can leave

Enzo Maresca has insisted that his bloated Chelsea squad is “not a mess” because he is only training with 21 players and the rest are free to leave if they want first-team football.
“I am not working with 42 players,” the Italian head coach said. “I am working with 21 players [in first-team training]. It’s not a mess like it looks from outside. The other players can even have 20 years contract, it is not my point. I don’t care.”
Raheem Sterling and Ben Chilwell are among those who were left out of Chelsea’s match-day squad for their Premier League defeat by Manchester City on Sunday and Maresca confirmed that neither player is part of his plans.
“In this moment, they are training apart [from the squad],” he said. “As I said, the situation with both of them is quite clear, there is not any update on the situation. We have a big squad, for me it’s impossible to give everyone minutes so if they’re looking for minutes, probably it is better to leave. And in case they don’t leave, they have a contract here, they are Chelsea players.
“I spoke with Raheem one-on-one the day before City. I explained him exactly the situation. I didn’t see Raheem after the game. He was training apart. I have nothing new to tell him, I was quite clear.
“Brutal? I don’t think so. I try to be honest. I said, I can repeat if it’s not clear, I spoke with Raheem before City. I said that he’s going to struggle to get minutes. With Chilly, I said he’s lovely, but he would struggle because of his position.”
Sterling’s exclusion from Chelsea’s Europa Conference League play-off squad this week came as no surprise to the forward after he was told by Maresca on Friday, before the City defeat, that he was not in the head coach’s plans this season.
Sterling had been preparing for Sunday’s game against his former club and had just finished the final session when he was pulled aside by Maresca and told it was likely that he would not be part of the squad because Chelsea had too many forwards.
He was excluded from the match-day squad at the weekend and was given the distinct impression by Maresca that he would not get any game time, having been told to start assessing his options.
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The 29-year-old was not the only player not to make the cut for the first-leg clash with Servette on Thursday, with Chilwell also missing from the squad. Both are among a dozen or more players who could depart the club before the transfer window ends a week on Friday.
Chelsea have named four wide players for the European tie, including Pedro Neto, who joined from Wolverhampton Wanderers last week, putting more doubt over the future of Sterling, who had asked for clarity after being dropped for the 2-0 defeat at home to City.
Sterling was Chelsea’s first significant signing under the new owners when he arrived for £50million from City in 2022. He has three years left on his contract, worth a total of £70million, which only underlines the financial and practical challenges facing Chelsea if they hope to offload unwanted players. He is settled in London and would not want to move to a club in Saudi Arabia or elsewhere who could afford his wages.
Chelsea need to slash a squad of 43 players and have agreed a deal to offload Armando Broja on loan to Ipswich Town. But they could still sign another centre back and forward in addition to the arrival of João Félix from Atletico Madrid, who has signed a seven-year contract at Stamford Bridge. Félix cost an initial £42million and his move triggered the sale of Conor Gallagher to the Spanish club for £34million.
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Sterling was in the 20-man squad for Félix’s last match during his loan spell at Chelsea in 2022-23. Of that group, ten have left permanently and three are set to leave this month (Kepa Arrizabalaga, Gallagher and Trevoh Chalobah).
Wesley Fofana has also been left out of the European squad, despite playing a full match against City on Sunday. Servette finished third in Switzerland’s top flight last season and won the domestic cup, but lost to Braga in the Europa League qualifiers this month.
Broja will hope to revive his career at Ipswich after he did not start any of his eight league matches while on loan at Fulham because of the form of Rodrigo Muniz in the second half of last season. He has struggled for game time, partly because of a serious knee injury, after coming through Chelsea’s academy, scoring two goals in 26 league matches for the club. He has a contract at Chelsea until 2028 and has had previous loan spells at Vitesse Arnhem and Southampton, where he scored six league goals in 2021-22.
The deal for Broja will include an obligation to buy him for up to £30million if Ipswich avoid relegation from the Premier League. The 22-year-old will become Ipswich’s tenth signing of the summer and their second permitted domestic loan in addition to Kalvin Phillips from Manchester City.
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He will join the other forwards — Liam Delap, Ali Al-Hamadi and George Hirst, who is out until October with a knee injury. Freddie Ladapo is expected to leave. Ipswich have also signed Aro Muric, Ben Johnson, Jacob Greaves, Conor Townsend, Phillips, Jens Cajuste, Omari Hutchinson, Sammie Szmodics and Delap.
Chelsea also want to offload Romelu Lukaku, Chalobah, Chilwell, Kepa Arrizabalaga, Cesare Casadei, Lucas Bergstrom and Djordje Petrovic.
The futures of Axel Disasi and Carney Chukwuemeka are unclear, though both have been named in the squad for Thursday’s tie.