Enzo Maresca admits he hasn't even SEEN three Chelsea players this season in ruthless message

Enzo Maresca has given another blunt message to Chelsea’s unwanted trio after the summer transfer window closed. The Blues oversaw a huge turnover of players over the summer, but could not shift all of them, leaving three stranded.

Chelsea offloaded a whopping 21 players in the window, with Noni Madueke, Nicolas Jackson, Christopher Nkunku and Joao Felix among them. They managed to generate around £290million by selling players, with £285m of that reinvested in Maresca’s squad.

While sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart were busy offloading fringe players, they didn’t achieve a clean sweep. Raheem Sterling, Axel Disasi and David Datro Fofana remain at Chelsea, but have been left in limbo because Maresca doesn’t have space in his squad for them.

They have therefore formed a so-called ‘bomb squad’, forced to train by themselves at Chelsea’s Cobham training ground at a different time to the first team. The Blues have suffered an injury crisis ahead of their match against Brentford in the Premier League, but even with some players missing, Sterling, Disasi and Fofana have no chance of being included in a match day squad.

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“They are Chelsea players because they have a contract with the club,” Maresca said in his pre-match press conference. “In this moment, they are still training apart. The idea is to continue in exactly the same way.

“Since we started the season, I didn't see one of them. I didn't see Renato [Veiga, who left for Villarreal], I didn't see Axel, I didn’t see Raheem, because they train at a different time on a different pitch. I haven’t seen them since we started the season.”

Asked if there was any way back into the first team for them, Maresca bluntly replied: “With us? No.”

Sterling, 30, is the most obvious issue for Chelsea, with the forward being paid £300,000 per week on a contract that still has two years left to run. He spent last season on loan with Arsenal, but was unable to attract a new club over the summer, largely due to his enormous wages.

Disasi, 27, spent the second half of last season on loan with Aston Villa, and had interest from Sunderland, Bournemouth and West Ham over the summer. However, the French defender held out for a return to former club Monaco which never materialised.

Fofana, 22, spent last season on loan with Turkish side Goztepe. Like the other two, he was named in Chelsea’s squad for the Premier League season, but still can’t get a game, even with injuries biting.

Maresca will be without Romeo Lavia, Levi Colwill, Benoit Badiashile, Liam Delap and Dario Essugo for the Brentford game, while Cole Palmer is a doubt. Meanwhile, their South American stars Joao Pedro, Estevao Willian, Andrey Santos and Moises Caicedo arrived back from international duty too late to train ahead of the game.

Nevertheless, Maresca is happy with his options. “I think we have a good squad,” he said. “At my press conference with Chelsea one year ago, I said that I was in love with the squad and this was the reason why I decided to join this club, because the squad was already very good. Since that, we tried to make some changes and overall I think the squad is good.”

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