Chelsea’s first game of the season hasn’t even kicked off yet and there’s already chaos and confusion.
We knew lots of players were going to struggle to get into the matchday squad – that’s just simple arithmetic. But we didn’t expect Raheem Sterling to be one of those excluded entirely. He clearly didn’t either – just minutes after the team news, his team have released a statement:
“Raheem Sterling is contracted to Chelsea Football Club for the next three years. He returned to England two weeks early to conduct individual training, and has had a positive pre-season under the new coach, who he has developed a good working relationship with.
“He is committed, as ever, to delivering at the highest level for Chelsea FC and the fans, who he holds in high regard, and given his inclusion in official club pre-match material this week, our expectation was that Raheem would be involved in this weekend’s fixture in some capacity.
“As a camp, we have always had positive dialogue with, and assurance from, Chelsea FC in relation to Raheem’s future at the club, so we look forward to gaining clarity on the situation.
Some are comparing this to the infamous Romelu Lukaku interview in terms of potentially causing disruption in the squad. We wouldn’t go that far, as it’s all rather polite, but it’s certainly not ideal and could lead to much worse.
Chaos reigns before kick off
Well, as we wrote in the piece linked here, just moments before this statement was released, this was always going to cause trouble.
Sterling has been included all summer, in training and on the tour, only to find out on Matchday 1 that he’s not in his boss’s plans – to the extent that he can’t even make the bench. It’s a slap in the face to one of the few senior players in the squad, and a colossal risk to take on a player who earns £300,000 a week and is under no pressure to go anywhere if he doesn’t want to.
Chelsea are playing such a dangerous game here: in order to try and force players like Sterling out, they risk creating a dreadfully toxic environment that will prevent even the players they do like from playing wel.