ENZO Maresca has told Chelsea outcasts Raheem Sterling and Axel Disasi: Try being a fisherman like my dad.
SunSport revealed the Blues were contacted by PFA chief Maheta Molango about the way they were isolating Sterling and Disasi, the only remaining members of the “bomb squad” of unwanted players.
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But when Maresca was asked about the potential impact on their mental health, the Blues boss said: “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.
“This is hard in life, not a player, the way they work.”
Maresca’s dad Pasquale went missing in Istanbul during the celebrations of Manchester City’s Champions League triumph when his son was assistant to Pep Guardiola.
Pasquale turned up safe and well but Sterling and Disasi have totally disappeared from Chelsea‘s first-team plans.
Maresca has some sympathy with them from his own experiences of being frozen out as a player.
But he insists the situation happens all the time in global football when players fall out of favour and do not move on to new clubs.
Maresca 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 for a player because if you are a player that means that you want to train and play a game.
“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 and this is the only thing I can say.
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“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 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.”
Sterling, Disasi and other members of the bomb squad spent the summer changing, training, eating and even going to the loo in facilities separate from their old friends in the first team.
Sterling laid bare the reality of his situation by posting a picture from Chelsea’s Cobham training ground.
He revealed he was about to start a solo training session while noting the time of 8.21pm.
Chelsea have strongly rejected suggestions that their treatment of the players could consititute “abusive conduct” under Fifa rules.
Article 14 of the Fifa Regulatons on the Status and Transfer of Players says: “Any abusive conduct of a party aiming at forcing the counterparty to terminate or change the terms of the contract shall entitle the counterparty (a player or a club) to terminate the contract with just cause.”
But neither Sterling nor Disasi is likely to bring a case before Fifa.
Disasi has nearly six years left on his £80,000–per-week-contract, which means he would have to write off more than £20m to leave Chelsea unliaterally.
And Sterling has almost two years to go of his £325,000-per-week deal, which is worth around £30m.
Which is a lot more than Pasquale Maresca has earned for fishing in the Med for half a century.
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