Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca used the hardship suffered by his fisherman father to forcefully defend his club’s treatment of unwanted players such as Raheem Sterling and Axel Disasi after reports emerged claiming that the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) had intervened to defend their interests.
The two discarded squad members spent at least part of last season out on loan. Sterling endured an underwhelming campaign across the English capital at Arsenal while Disasi joined Aston Villa in the winter transfer window. Neither player secured a permanent switch and are yet to be included in a matchday squad for Chelsea this season.
Firmly out of Maresca’s plans, they continue to train, eat and get changed away from the first team. Earlier this month, Chelsea’s manager openly admitted that he hasn’t set eyes on the pair at all during the new campaign.
In light of this revelation, the PFA have intervened, as revealed by BBC Sport. The union for current and former professional footballers across England’s domestic tiers is thought to be concerned that Sterling and Disasi have the “platform to train to an optimum level.”
The PFA are expected to remind Chelsea of FIFA’s regulations when it comes to unfairly excluding players, which can be deemed to be “abusive conduct” in some circumstances.
Article 15 in FIFA’s Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players reads: “An established professional who has, in the course of the season, appeared in fewer than 10% of the official matches in which his club has been involved may terminate his contract prematurely on the ground of sporting just cause.” This drastic action can only be triggered in the first 15 days following the final match of the season.
Maresca offered some sympathy to the duo when questioned by media on Friday. “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 for a player,” he acknowledged, “because if you are a player that means that you want to train and play a game and then for a different reason the situation is the situation that is in this moment and I know that the club is giving them the opportunity to work in the right way. This is the only thing I can say.”
The tone began to shift when Maresca was pushed on the topic. “I know that it’s something that you [the media] like and you want to talk about but it’s not just Chelsea, it’s any club in the world,” he fumed.
“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 and 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.”
Maresca really snapped when the players’ mental health was raised. “My father is 75 years old and for 50 years he has been a fisherman, working from 2 o’clock in the morning until 10 o’clock in the morning,” he sniped. “This is hard in life, not a player, the way they work.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Enzo Maresca Slams Criticism of Chelsea’s Bomb Squad After PFA ‘Intervention’.
