Raheem Sterling's status as an outsider at Chelsea may not fully be Enzo Maresca's doing, Phil Jagielka believes.
Sterling was not on the Blues' match day roster for their 2-0 season-opening loss to Manchester City over the weekend, and Maresca left the 29-year-old off Chelsea's squad list for Thursday's UEFA Europa Conference League playoff against Swiss side Servette. Sterling's omission is a direct result of Chelsea's transfer policy, which has brought in dozens of new players to Stamford Bridge over the past two years, including Sterling himself.
The veteran attacker has found himself on the outside looking in as Maresca has trimmed his preferred number of players down, with the new manager bluntly stating last week: "I want Raheem Sterling but I want all the 30 players we have, but there is no space for all of them. So, for some of them, they have to leave."
It's a tough situation for Sterling, whose high salary and age may scare off some potential suitors. Jagielka, who played 15 seasons in the Premier League and was a teammate of Sterling's in the England national team from 2012 to 2016, believes Sterling would have provided much-needed depth and experience to a young Chelsea side and thus doesn't think Maresca is the sole deciding factor behind his omission from the squad.
"For me, if you look at the bench, I think if Raheem was on the bench, he'd have probably made it stronger," Jagielka told Betway. "But there's obviously been a statement. It doesn't seem like it's 100% the manager's choice. It seems like the people that make the money decisions, or the owner have decided there's a group that have got an ‘X’ across them that they don't want there, and it seems like Raheem might be surplus to requirements.
"I just don't know how the changing room can cope with it. I don't understand how people can walk in. If I put myself in Raheem's position, he can't come in happy knowing that basically he's got to go to another changing room and train with the kids when he's not done anything wrong.
"The environment they’re setting for the start of the season is absolutely insane. They're just making the environment worse and worse and worse. Maybe when the transfer window shuts and they've maybe sold twelve people and are left with 40, it might be all right."
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