Enzo Maresca has dismissed suggestions that Raheem Sterling and Axel Disasi are being treated unfairly by Chelsea, stating that the life of a footballer is “not hard”.
Sterling and Disasi are still both training away from the Chelsea first team, as part of a so-called ‘bomb-squad’, having failed to secure moves away during the summer transfer window.
Neither player is in Maresca’s plans, and the Chelsea head coach admitted that he has little sympathy for the situation they find themselves in, comparing their lives as footballers to that of his 75-year-old father, who is a fisherman.
“My father is 75 years old and for 50 years he has been a fisherman working from two o'clock in the morning until 10 o'clock in the morning,” he said ahead of Saturday’s trip to Manchester United in the Premier League. “This is a hard life, not a player, the way they work.”
Maresca, who has said there is no way back at Stamford Bridge for Sterling and Disasi, was similarly outcast as a player, but was clear that Chelsea were providing the pair with the resources they need to stay fit ahead of the January transfer window.
He said: “I've been in Raheem's situation and Axel's situation as a player and for sure I know that it's not the best feeling.
“Because if you are a player that means that you want to train and play a game, but then for different reasons the situation is that it is in this moment. I know that the club is giving them the opportunity to work in the right way and this is the only thing I can say.”
Maresca went on to insist that the situation Sterling and Disasi find themselves in is not unique to Chelsea, despite the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) contacting the club this week over the duo.
“No, but I think I know that it's something that probably you like and you want to talk about but it's not just Chelsea, it's any club in the world,” he said. “I can promise you, Italy, Spain, England, France, USA, Brazil - any club in the world when for any reason the player and the club doesn't find any solution.
“You give the player all the tools to do training sessions and to do everything, but if you are not involved in the squad, you are not involved in the squad.
“Again, I know that it's something that you like to talk about, but it's not about Chelsea. It's about any club in the world.”
