In front of the media after a pre-season defeat in Ohio, Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca asked about the boy who faced his former team, Manchester City, that day: Raheem Sterling.
Having been left out of the England squad for Euro 2024, the forward was one of the first players to return to prepare for the new crusade and it is clear from the coach’s reaction that he had left an impression.
“Raheem’s position, for me, is that of a winger; the position he had in the first 4 games with us. I don’t see him in any other position. In any game it can happen when we have to use him in another position. Of course, he is one of our vital players, along with the others,” he said.
“Right now he plays from the beginning, he comes in. The vital thing is that we give him minutes and he is doing well”.
A little more than a fortnight later, Maresca’s words could not have been more different.
The “important player” had been completely left out of the squad for the first Premier League clash against Manchester City and the fuss he caused was an unwanted pre-match distraction.
“The coach has to make decisions that other people and the players don’t like. This is normal. It’s just a technical decision, nothing more. We’ll see in the next few days,” Maresca’s brief reaction before the start of the match.
“I need Sterling but I need them all. I can’t have them all, so some will have to go. In the next few days we will see if we can explain the situation,” he added after the 0-2 defeat. Training
There is no definitive public “clarification,” but everything indicated that the personal messages sent to Raheem Sterling were not reassuring.
First his number seven, which he liked, he gave to newcomer Pedro Neto, then he was left out of the European squad of the ‘bleus’.
The Londoner has proven polite as he prepares to leave the club for good.
What happened between Maresca’s effusive words at the beginning of August and the bloodless attitude of the public is now the genuine question and the one that Sterling himself is asking.
If the manager really didn’t like the striker, he would have let it be known from the start, giving him every time imaginable to find a new club.
But the Maresca blows hot, then cold.
Perhaps disappointed by this, Sterling took the rare step before the Manchester City match of officially answering media questions about his exclusion from the team and, in a statement released before the match, the Englishman’s representatives set out the scenario from their point of view.
“Raheem Sterling has a contract with Chelsea Football Club for the next 3 years,” it reads.
“He returned to England two weeks early to lead individual education and had a positive pre-season under the new coach, with whom he has evolved a running relationship.
“He is committed, as always, to delivering the popularity of Chelsea FC and the fans he holds dear, and given his inclusion in the club’s official pre-match dressing room this week, we expected Raheem to be involved in this game. ” weekend, somehow.
“As a team, we have had positive discussions and assurances from Chelsea FC in relation to Raheem’s long career at the club, so we hope to clarify the situation.
“Until then, we will continue with Raheem’s preference to start the new season on a positive note. “
Maresca has since stated that there has already been “clarity” for the former Liverpool player.
“I spoke to Raheem before the City game and told him that he was going to have difficulty getting minutes with us,” he explained later.
Before adding, a little salty: “I’m not saying that Raheem is not an intelligent player but I prefer the type of winger. “
Sterling’s decision to make a public statement was not well received. Former Liverpool players Jamie Carragher and Jamie Redknapp told him to “play better” instead of talking.
“If the coach doesn’t need to play with you, he moves on,” Redknapp added in a televised talk.
“Don’t ask your reps to come and do that, especially on game day. This is absolutely nonsense, he does more than that.
“Their representatives do more than that. It’s a very bad statement. There are other players who can simply make statements that are not part of the team.
“He didn’t do well enough. That’s your opinion, if you think you did well enough in pre-season, keep doing better. “
“The coach’s opinion is the only one that counts and if he doesn’t decide for you it’s bad luck. We have to get back to education in the morning, be the most productive coach and show what we need to play.
“It’s the way to get back into the team. “
If it were about having to fight the festival in your position, that would be one thing.
But Sterling’s disorders are much more serious. He is necessarily armed through the club, it is a scenario from which “playing better” saves him.
From banning to expulsion from teams, Chelsea are doing everything they can to make a football team leave.
It is not difficult to find reasons why other people in west London act this way. Sterling will turn 30 in December and he is said to earn around $400,000 a week.
Since his arrival in 2022, the Blues have signed 3 25-year-old men who play the same position as him for a total of $189 million.
That Noni Madueke, Mykhaylo Mudryk or Pedro Neto are more “younger” than Maresca, to the fact that all of them have a resale price significantly higher than that of a professional who turns 30 this year. From a monetary perspective, everyone deserves more time and attention.
But you have to wonder why Maresca is so positive at first, is it just pre-season bragging or has it replaced his mind? If it’s the latter, the question is who or what replaced things?
Presumably, Sterling felt the coach had made him part of the plans enough to make a public statement.
There has certainly been a plot twist, anything has replaced and we can only speculate about who everything is.
Sadly, we won’t know the full fact until some time after the sale of the British pound.
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