Enzo Maresca defends Chelsea transfer policy, gives brutal update on Sterling

Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has backed the club transfer policy despite the ongoing drama surrounding some players future.

According to Maresca, Chelsea are heading in a perfect direction despite the potential nightmare of a bomb squad, including £325,000-a-week star Raheem Sterling who has been told he has no place in the team.

Speaking ahead of Chelsea Europa Conference League play-off against Servette, Maresca maintains that Stamford Bridge, where a dizzying £1.2 billion cast of new players has arrived in two years, is a perfectly normal workplace.

Maresca said: “The most important thing for us is to try and be focused on what we have every day, in terms of the players, the squad and the way we try to improve the team.

“This is the only thing we can control and then many things can happen – we have two more days of the transfer window and then finally it is closed. The main focus has always been on the pitch and the football side.

“I think it’s a feeling for all the managers because when the transfer window is open, anything can happen; we can sell players, we can buy players, we can loan players. So the moment the transfer window is closed, it is closed for everyone and we can just focus on the squad we have.

“I can say it is not a mad club. Since I joined the club, the things are working in one way, in one direction. The players that arrive, they are all players that together with the club we have decided to bring.

“The ones that are not involved, it is because we decided that way. It is not a mad club.

“What’s happened before is very difficult for me to judge because I was not here, so I don’t have any idea. Since I’m here, for me there is a clear direction of where the club wants to go and we are in the perfect direction.”

Raheem Sterling has been asked to leave Chelsea (Photo by James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)

Asked if he had a nugget of advice for Sterling who has been asked to leave, Maresca replied: ”Raheem is a fantastic person, a fantastic guy, he trains very well.

“The only thing is that every manager has different ideas. I said in terms of the kind of winger, he is not one I like but it doesn’t mean nothing if he is not a good player. I think the history and numbers speak for Raheem. My advice – he knows exactly what he has to do. He doesn’t need my advice.

“It’s not just Raheem. It’s all the players who in this moment are training apart. In the moment the transfer window closes, they are not going to get minutes. I’ve already been clear with them and honest and this is the only reason why.”