Enzo Maresca says Chelsea's outcasts Raheem Sterling and Axel Disasi have easy lives compared to that of his own 75-year-old father who has spent the last five decades working as a fisherman.
The Chelsea manager was quizzed at his Friday press conference on how Sterling and Disasi were continuing to train separately from the first team with no chance of reconciliation. It comes as the Professional Footballers' Association have now gotten involved in trying to ensure that the pair have a proper platform to train as they await the opening of the January transfer window.
Maresca responded: '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. This is a hard life. Not for players.'
Sterling, who is still only 30, has two years remaining on his contract and is the Blues' highest-paid player on more than £300,000 a week. He broke his silence when posting a picture of himself on Instagram as he prepared to train under the lights of Cobham at 8.21pm last week.
Disasi, 27, is believed to be on around a third of Sterling's salary and contracted until 2029.
Maresca continued: '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 because if you are a player, that means that you want to train and play games. The situation is the situation.
'I know that the club is giving them the opportunity to work in the right way. I know it's something that you like and you want to talk about, but it's not just Chelsea, it's any club in the world.
'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 a 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. It's not about Chelsea, it's about any club in the world.'
zuydeiklry
149
Idk what the problem is here, the players are receiving their wages every week, and all they had to do was train that's it. If Sterling was really serious about playing football, he would go to another club, but sure thing he won't, cos he doesn't want to reduce his wages, which I wouldn't if I were him. But I don't have any sympathy for these guys, just train and get paid is a hard life?? In the real world, people are unemployed, homeless, barely surviving on minimum wage, so what up?
Nenadiopty
58
starling have everything in football than you as a coach. clueless
Puwabceprs
40
Your family history should not be compared to a young guy who’ve done so well in football
Posacdkmrz
10
You don’t have any human sympathy at all?? Train alone without game time until January?? Oh come on!! ,weekly wages is not enough in this situation,be a human for once bro… do you know how it feels training alone?? Making you look like you’re the worst in the world?? What happened to keeping him in the bench or even 5mins game time until January??? Come on,you can say better man!!
From what I can see here , it’s the club getting a loss cuz they’re paying a player that’s not playing . I don’t see any hard life for sterling here , if he wanted to play football, he would have reduced his wages and left , so it’s his choice Chelsea cannot afford him to be in the squad cuz they need only active squad players
Wuoackmnry
8
Sterling is enjoying £300,000 sterling pounds every week. If he loves football, he could have gone to any club with a lower salary but no. He wants his 300K sterling. Liverpool was clever to offload him for £50M.
UsuiTakumi99
8
You don’t have any human sympathy at all?? Train alone without game time until January?? Oh come on!! ,weekly wages is not enough in this situation,be a human for once bro… do you know how it feels training alone?? Making you look like you’re the worst in the world?? What happened to keeping him in the bench or even 5mins game time until January??? Come on,you can say better man!!
He's earning 300k, no sympathy for that
Valzy109
8
Idk what the problem is here, the players are receiving their wages every week, and all they had to do was train that's it. If Sterling was really serious about playing football, he would go to another club, but sure thing he won't, cos he doesn't want to reduce his wages, which I wouldn't if I were him. But I don't have any sympathy for these guys, just train and get paid is a hard life?? In the real world, people are unemployed, homeless, barely surviving on minimum wage, so what up?
You don’t have any human sympathy at all?? Train alone without game time until January?? Oh come on!! ,weekly wages is not enough in this situation,be a human for once bro… do you know how it feels training alone?? Making you look like you’re the worst in the world?? What happened to keeping him in the bench or even 5mins game time until January??? Come on,you can say better man!!