Chelsea manager Maresca admits half of his 42-man squad don’t train with the first team

'They can even have 20 years contract, it’s not my point. I don’t care.'

Speaking in a press conference today (21 August) ahead of Chelsea's Conference League play-off match with Swiss club Servette, the Chelsea manager made the stunning quotes addressing the size of his squad.

The 44-year-old said: "I am not working with 42 players. I am working with 21 players.

"The other 15-20 players are training apart. I don't see them. It's not a mess like it looks from outside. Absolutely not."

The revelation by the Italian manager is symptomatic of Chelsea's recent transfer activity since American business tycoon, Todd Boehly, bought the club from Russian oligarch, Roman Abramovich, in 2022.

The Blues have been sporadic with their spending, buying player after player outnumbering exports going the other way.

This has led to Chelsea possessing a squad of an incomprehensible 42 first-team players, leaving Maresca with plenty of talent to pick from, however lots of players to manage.

Maresca followed up in his press conference with a cutthroat admission: "They can even have 20 years contract, it’s not my point. I don’t care."

Only last year under the stewardship of Mauricio Pochettino, an embarrassing situation arose when the Argentinian manager forgot that Malang Sarr was one of his players after being asked about him in a press conference.

Since Boehly arrived at Chelsea the club have made 39 transfers and have spent over £1billion.