New Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca has claimed that the club’s precarious situation is not as bad as it seems. The Blues squad has swelled to include nearly 50 players in recent days. Despite completely revamping the team over the last two years, Chelsea has continued their spending spree. Team brass completed their 10th signing of the summer with a $58 million deal for Joao Felix.
Once regarded as one of the top prospects in the sport, Felix’s career has sputtered since joining Atletico Madrid in 2019. The Spanish side signed the young attacker for around $140 million at the time. Felix, however, never recorded more than 12 direct LaLiga goal involvements in a season with Atleti.
The attacker also previously spent the latter half of the 2022/23 season on loan at Chelsea. The deal included a $12 million fee, a large sum for a temporary deal. Felix was sent off in his first appearance with the Blues and ended with just four total goals in five months with Chelsea. Despite the previous failures, the Blues elected to bring back Felix on a massive permanent transfer.
Felix’s arrival comes at a time when Chelsea is forcing several players out of the team. They sold former alternate captain Conor Gallagher to Atleti and are hoping to make similar moves with around 20 other stars. One player in particular that may have played his last match with the Blues is Raheem Sterling.
The winger was left out of Chelsea’s first Premier League matchday squad, as well as their Europa Conference League roster. It was then revealed on Wednesday that the Blues stripped Sterling’s number seven jersey to give it to new signing Pedro Neto. As a result, Sterling is looking for a permanent move away from Chelsea.
Maresca has now denied previous claims that he did not inform Sterling that he would be left out of their Premier League squad. The coach also announced that he is currently not working with 21 senior Chelsea players at the moment.
“I try to be honest with all of them in this moment, the noise is from outside,” stated Maresca. “More than 15 players are training apart, they are not with the team… It’s not brutal, it’s honest. I am not working with 42 players. I am working with 21 players. It’s not a mess like it looks from the outside.”
The coach’s bizarre comments could very well make it difficult to negotiate in the transfer market. Why would any club want to meet Chelsea’s transfer demands on players that Maresca does not care about? There may be some cases where a potential bidding war could occur regarding a highly-rated player. However, teams can likely now use Maresca’s comments against them in the final stages of the transfer window.
Although the Chelsea coach has downplayed the self-inflicted situation, the Blues now face a tough task of offloading unwanted players. Sterling, in particular, could be difficult to sell given his enormous $425,000 per week salary. Among many others, the club is also attempting to sell high-profile players such as Kepa Arrizabalaga, Romelu Lukaku, Axel Disasi, and Benoît Badiashile.
This particular quartet cost Chelsea a combined sum of about $307 million. The Blues, however, will not receive anything close to this figure if they can offload them. Outside of the four, the club still needs to sell more than a dozen other players, unlikely for a profit, as well.
PHOTOS: IMAGO
