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Enzo Maresca (44), Chelsea's coach, discussed the arrival of Joao Felix (24) to the squad during his press conference ahead of the Conference League match with Servette on Wednesday, leaving the door open for more players to join a squad that already has 42 players. "First of all, because he's a good player, he's a talent.
The club has known him for two years. He can play in different positions with us, on the inside, as a nine, on the outside," said Maresca about Felix, before addressing the issue of London's large squad. "The task of any coach is to keep them all happy, but it's almost impossible. Only 11 will play. It's almost impossible to keep them all happy. I always try to be honest with all of them. The noise is greater out there because I've been working with 21 or 22 players since we returned from the United States. I'm not working with 42 players, more than 15 players are training separately," said the Chelsea coach.
Enzo Maresca also made it clear that issues such as contract length are not his concern. "They can even have 20-year contracts. It's none of my business, I don't care," he said, before also addressing the issue of Sterling, who was left out of the squad for the opening day of the Premier League season: "Sterling will get zero minutes here." Sterling is now waiting for transfer offers to help revitalize his career ahead of next week's transfer deadline as a number of clubs are already interested.
He was left out of the Premier League curtain-raiser against Manchester City and is very unlikely to earn any more minutes this season. Sterling has three years remaining on his £300k-a-week contract which has attracted Saudi clubs who look to be the only teams who can afford his wages. Maresca said after the City game that he "wants" Sterling at Chelsea, but also acknowledged "there is not enough space" for all the players in his squad.
