1 hour ago, Scott said:

A real team player. 😐

The 3 on vs Wolves, 2 on one vs Villa etc. 

;)

7 hours ago, icecoolguy22 said:

Just his way of forcing a move away 🤔 Take a pay cut, prepared to move abroad and learn a new language, issue fixed

I don't disagree that it was very unprofessional of Sterling and his camp and the timing is clearly by design. But I think you're wrong here. 

I don't think he is forcing a move away. Quite the reverse actually. The treatment of both Chilwell and Sterling over these last few days is so transparently poor from the management that he shows to me who is pulling the strings here. For Maresca to announce publicly that Chilwell should leave is not only poor as it wiped more off his price tag immediately but is clearly a Clearlake ploy to reduce the weekly wage bill.

Same here with Sterling. I'm no massive Sterling fan, but I will admit the team that he plays his best football against is Man City and Maresca clearly got it wrong not only playing Nkunku there, but also not even having Sterling on the bench. Again for me his complete omission was a purposeful ploy instigated by Clearlake as part of this campaign to very publicly freeze out the two highest earners in the squad.

Edited August 19, 20241 yr by WhiteWall

4 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

I don't disagree that it was very unprofessional of Sterling and his camp and the timing is clearly by design. But I think you're wrong here. 

I don't think he is forcing a move away. Quite the reverse actually. The treatment of both Chilwell and Sterling over these last few days is so transparently poor from the management that he shows to me who is pulling the strings here. For Maresca to announce publicly that Chilwell should leave is not only poor as it wiped more off his price tag immediately but is clearly a Clearlake ploy to reduce the weekly wage bill.

Same here with Sterling. I'm no massive Sterling fan, but I will admit the team that he plays his best football against is Man City and Maresca clearly got it wrong not only playing Nkunku there, but also not even having Sterling on the bench. Again for me his complete omission was a purposeful ploy instigated by Clearlake as part of this campaign to very publicly freeze out the two highest earners in the squad.

Why is Chilly's and Sterlings different to lets say Kepa Arrizabalaga or Carney Chukwuemeka? Coaches always say everyone is on the same line when doing selections. Clearly Enzo is doing like he says. Provide for the team and you play. Sterling haven't provided and he is out the squad. Enzo has said 5 times already he can't find a spot for Chilly with the system. Chilly knows this and doesn't put out statements. Just because Sterling is 29 doesn't mean he is in a different situation in terms of selection. I actually give credit to Enzo here. Play better in training and you are in the squad.

Sterling however has probably nailed his coffin at Chelsea with the statement. 

16 minutes ago, evissy said:

Why is Chilly's and Sterlings different to lets say Kepa Arrizabalaga or Carney Chukwuemeka? Coaches always say everyone is on the same line when doing selections. Clearly Enzo is doing like he says. Provide for the team and you play. Sterling haven't provided and he is out the squad. Enzo has said 5 times already he can't find a spot for Chilly with the system. Chilly knows this and doesn't put out statements. Just because Sterling is 29 doesn't mean he is in a different situation in terms of selection. I actually give credit to Enzo here. Play better in training and you are in the squad.

Sterling however has probably nailed his coffin at Chelsea with the statement. 

Surely that is evident. Certainly as far as Chilwell is concerned in that he has been advised to leave in an open  press conference from the manager., which hasn't been done regarding any other player. I did say that it was unprofessional of Sterling but Maresca has used him throughout pre season which he hasn't done with the two you've named. 

Whatever the ploy is, none of it appears to be a professional approach in maximising the sale value of players that you don't want. 

Sterling might not be popular with the fanbase but at this moment in time he is still our best winger, light years ahead of Mudryk and Madueke who were both selected, and also better than latest flavour of the month Neto who let's not forget scored a goal every 10 games for Wolves, and has fewer career goals in 5 years than Sterling has scored in 2 years just at Chelsea.

For Maresca to leave Sterling out of the entire match day squad totally smacks of toeing the Clearlake line to force him out. It's absolute bullsh*t to say it was a "technical" issue. 

I thought Pat Nevin's comments about this fiasco were spot on.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cwy5j7pzxwpo 

7 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Sterling might not be popular with the fanbase but at this moment in time he is still our best winger, light years ahead of Mudryk and Madueke who were both selected, and also better than latest flavour of the month Neto who let's not forget scored a goal every 10 games for Wolves, and has fewer career goals in 5 years than Sterling has scored in 2 years just at Chelsea.

For Maresca to leave Sterling out of the entire match day squad totally smacks of toeing the Clearlake line to force him out. It's absolute bullsh*t to say it was a "technical" issue. 

I thought Pat Nevin's comments about this fiasco were spot on.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cwy5j7pzxwpo 

Have to disagree there and I'm sure many would.

Way ahead of Mudryk yes, but think most CFC supporters would prefer to see Madueke in the side than Sterling and no way is Sterling light years ahead of him. Of course he has loads more experience but he hasn't learned from it. Still makes the wrong decisions time and again. 

1 minute ago, Nibs said:

Have to disagree there and I'm sure many would.

Way ahead of Mudryk yes, but think most CFC supporters would prefer to see Madueke in the side than Sterling and no way is Sterling light years ahead of him. Of course he has loads more experience but he hasn't learned from it. Still makes the wrong decisions time and again. 

All I read on here is that Madueke has no end product !

1 hour ago, Sexyfootball said:

Sterling might not be popular with the fanbase but at this moment in time he is still our best winger, light years ahead of Mudryk and Madueke who were both selected, and also better than latest flavour of the month Neto who let's not forget scored a goal every 10 games for Wolves, and has fewer career goals in 5 years than Sterling has scored in 2 years just at Chelsea.

For Maresca to leave Sterling out of the entire match day squad totally smacks of toeing the Clearlake line to force him out. It's absolute bullsh*t to say it was a "technical" issue. 

I thought Pat Nevin's comments about this fiasco were spot on.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cwy5j7pzxwpo 

Neto is better than Sterling for me. 

You can pick just his goal scoring but Neto has more goals and assists per 90 than Sterling last year. Not to mention Neto can actually take a man on too. 

Completely agree this is all from Clearlake though, same with the comments about Chilwell. 

Sterling wants clarity on his position? 

Let me assist.

You're an overpaid twerp who's way past his sell by date, who waddles around the pitch like he's shat himself, and the sooner you f**k off to Saudi the better.

Hope that helps Raheem (and camp).

Is there a link to the message his camp has put out? I can find a lot of news articles about the message, but not the message itself. 

TIA.

Attempting to sell him is fine but all this alienating of some of the few senior players we have can't be a good idea no? Not just happened to Sterling either and unless we are able to move them on (Chilly, Sterling) its not going to do anything for morale at Cobham one would assume.

2 hours ago, WhiteWall said:

I don't disagree that it was very unprofessional of Sterling and his camp and the timing is clearly by design. But I think you're wrong here. 

I don't think he is forcing a move away. Quite the reverse actually. The treatment of both Chilwell and Sterling over these last few days is so transparently poor from the management that he shows to me who is pulling the strings here. For Maresca to announce publicly that Chilwell should leave is not only poor as it wiped more off his price tag immediately but is clearly a Clearlake ploy to reduce the weekly wage bill.

Same here with Sterling. I'm no massive Sterling fan, but I will admit the team that he plays his best football against is Man City and Maresca clearly got it wrong not only playing Nkunku there, but also not even having Sterling on the bench. Again for me his complete omission was a purposeful ploy instigated by Clearlake as part of this campaign to very publicly freeze out the two highest earners in the squad.

None of us are inside his camp to know what he's thinking, so to say who's right or wrong is a bit far stretched.

If he wanted to stay, he didn't have to do a thing, certainly not going to public. If he wanted to vent about his displeasure of being dropped, could have done it in house. His agent could have said the manager is an idiot for not picking him after we lost, we seen other players have done something similar. Instead, his representative did this just before the game. For me, he wanted out unless the manager started to treat him better, but he's not to put in a transfer request or train more. He's not in the England team anyway, so he won't worry about lack of football impacting his career.  He hasn't got much to lose. Not going to talk abut the owners group again, they are doing things most of us don't understand 🙄

1 hour ago, WhiteWall said:

Surely that is evident. Certainly as far as Chilwell is concerned in that he has been advised to leave in an open  press conference from the manager., which hasn't been done regarding any other player. I did say that it was unprofessional of Sterling but Maresca has used him throughout pre season which he hasn't done with the two you've named. 

Whatever the ploy is, none of it appears to be a professional approach in maximising the sale value of players that you don't want. 

We know nothing about the discussions held between the manger and other players, we have no idea what was discussed when the squad was told on Friday nor how RS reacted. Yes he was used during pre season but players do get minutes in PSFs and get moved on.
Maresca almost certainly would be criticised if he didn’t have a look at an experienced international (ex) in these games, its highly possible that the manager just doesn’t like what he has seen be it in training, taking on board what the manager wants, the player’s attitude etc. what we do know is that Sterlings response has been petulant and despite the situation with Chilly, Conor, Trevh and others who the club doesn’t feel have a future none have done what Sterling did. 

Sterling thinks he deserves special treatment. He is costing between 5&10% of the overall squad costs I don’t rate other players but I certainly dont see  value 
That lack of knowledge likewise is the case re Chilly. You say he was advised in an open press conference  I would hazard a guess, no I think it’s beyond doubt that he would have had conversations with the club about his future so the comments at the press conference 

We have no idea the state of things behind the scenes I wonder if there has been some offers indeed Sky are suggesting that if a player is left out then something is in the offing ok they are talking about Toney ironically he was left out of Brentford’s squad yet no petulant comment from the player.

As I keep saying I am not a betting man but I suspect by Thursday we will know an awful lot more re around potentially 7 departures

Kepa, Chalobah, Chillwell, Sterling, Lukaku,Broja, Madueke 

1 hour ago, Sexyfootball said:

Sterling might not be popular with the fanbase but at this moment in time he is still our best winger, light years ahead of Mudryk and Madueke who were both selected, and also better than latest flavour of the month Neto who let's not forget scored a goal every 10 games for Wolves, and has fewer career goals in 5 years than Sterling has scored in 2 years just at Chelsea.

For Maresca to leave Sterling out of the entire match day squad totally smacks of toeing the Clearlake line to force him out. It's absolute bullsh*t to say it was a "technical" issue. 

I thought Pat Nevin's comments about this fiasco were spot on.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cwy5j7pzxwpo 

Just after Sterling signed for us I was in Tenerife and watched our game ( can’t remember who against ) alongside me was a group of City supporters who were watching their game on another TV.

They were really quite interesting to listen to and every one of them was delighted he had been sold. To a man they talked about his lack of application, his lack of consistency and as they said he scored a lot of goals because of the team around him.

Sterling isn’t close to our best wide player. To suggest he is sorry is blinkered. He does every so often pull something out but in a matter of weeks he is 30 and there is no way he will get better. I personally think it was a mistake signing him but that’s not his fault nor were the fee or his wages his fault but his time is done at Chelsea. I suspect he knows that 

4 minutes ago, terraloon said:

Sterling isn’t close to our best wide player.

Who's better? Because last season he certainly was. Killed Walker/City on multiple occasions as well.

5 minutes ago, terraloon said:

Just after Sterling signed for us I was in Tenerife and watched our game ( can’t remember who against ) alongside me was a group of City supporters who were watching their game on another TV.

They were really quite interesting to listen to and every one of them was delighted he had been sold. To a man they talked about his lack of application, his lack of consistency and as they said he scored a lot of goals because of the team around him.

Sterling isn’t close to our best wide player. To suggest he is sorry is blinkered. He does every so often pull something out but in a matter of weeks he is 30 and there is no way he will get better. I personally think it was a mistake signing him but that’s not his fault nor were the fee or his wages his fault but his time is done at Chelsea. I suspect he knows that 

I'm not sure Sterling being the one-eyed King in the land of the blind is quite the endorsement from me you think it is, but I'd still pick him every time at left wing ahead of the hapless Mudryk and even most times ahead of Madueke on the right. Nkunku is not a winger, as he demonstrated yesterday. Neto as yet unproven at a big club, but should hopefully establish himself quickly, albeit he's probably a better bet on the right than the left. I don't see any of  this as blinkered - just realistic about where we are right now.

3 minutes ago, OriginalS said:

Who's better? Because last season he certainly was. Killed Walker/City on multiple occasions as well.

Neto is , Maduke I believe is, Nkunku playing wide is better although not classed as a winger

2 minutes ago, OriginalS said:

Who's better? Because last season he certainly was. Killed Walker/City on multiple occasions as well.

For the moment I think I agree but at the end of the season if he's not improved or at least pulled his weight we could offload then. Somebody said Neto was better but we haven't had any evidence of this and I'm pretty sure Sterling would have contributed more than Neto did when he came on. 

It just seems to me that there's a sort of McCarthyism going on at the club. Anybody here under commie rule is out.

4 minutes ago, terraloon said:

Neto is , Maduke I believe is, Nkunku playing wide is better although not classed as a winger

We'll see about Neto and hopefully he delivers but I disagree about the other two. Nkunku isn't a winger at all as a matter of fact and he's going to continue to be poor if Maresca insist on playing him as one.

If Sterling was 6 years younger and on a smaller wage I think he'd be considered an untouchable for Maresca. I think he and many others lose their minds because he's older and paid more than the others and are now attempting to push him out because of it.

53 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Neto is better than Sterling for me. 

You can pick just his goal scoring but Neto has more goals and assists per 90 than Sterling last year. Not to mention Neto can actually take a man on too. 

Completely agree this is all from Clearlake though, same with the comments about Chilwell. 

Sterling when motivated is one of the best winger in PL. 

41 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Is there a link to the message his camp has put out? I can find a lot of news articles about the message, but not the message itself. 

TIA.

they discuss the statement here and they show it. 

1 minute ago, OriginalS said:

We'll see about Neto and hopefully he delivers but I disagree about the other two. Nkunku isn't a winger at all as a matter of fact and he's going to continue to be poor if Maresca insist on playing him as one.

If Sterling was 6 years younger and on a smaller wage I think he'd be considered an untouchable for Maresca. I think he and many others lose their minds because he's older and paid more than the others and are now attempting to push him out because of it.

It is not easy to sell player on big salary

We have tried to offload Kepa and Lukaku for 3 summer. 

5 minutes ago, Andy North said:

It just seems to me that there's a sort of McCarthyism going on at the club. Anybody here under commie rule is out.

It had occurred to me that the latest Eghbali/Stewart/Winstanley whim is to clean house of players who were strongly identified with Pochettino's best team ... Palmer excepted, who did so well that he is untouchable (for now). 

 

10 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

Sterling when motivated is one of the best winger in PL. 

That's once a season then.

We need to just get rid and cut our losses.

 

Edited August 19, 20241 yr by Nibs

This smacks of the owners pulling far too many strings. Of course we don't know for certain but no way he doesn't make the bench  before Mudryk.