Shades of Sterling & Mudryk: Maresca must axe Chelsea’s “pointless signing”
They have received plenty of stick for it over the years, but Chelsea’s transfer strategy is starting to pay off.
The likes of Cole Palmer, Moises Caicedo, Estevao, Enzo Fernández and Marc Cucurella all joined the Blues under the current ownership and have been exceptional.
However, it also has to be said that the club have made their fair share of dud signings over the last few years, with Raheem Sterling and Mykhailo Mudryk among the most high-profile.
Unfortunately, there is a player in Enzo Maresca’s squad who could end up going down the same road, a player who has to be dropped ahead of this weekend’s game.
Sterling and Mudryk's Chelsea careers
Chelsea paid around £50m to sign Sterling from Manchester City in the summer of 2022, and while it’s easy to say that was a mistake today, it looked like pretty good business at the time.
After all, he was a multiple league winner, still just 27 years old, and in 339 appearances for the Citizens, had scored 131 goals and provided 86 assists.
Unfortunately, while he has certainly had moments of real brilliance with the Blues, they have only ever really been moments, and his tally of 19 goals and 15 assists in 81 games doesn’t really justify his mammoth weekly wage of £325k.
The West Londoners hoped that by sending him on loan to Arsenal last season, he’d put himself back in the shop window for a move away, but he ended up further damaging his reputation and is now stuck in the club’s ‘bomb squad.’
Unfortunately, the situation with Mudryk is even worse.
The Ukrainian international joined the Pensioners in January 2023 for a fee of up to £89m, and there was understandable excitement around the deal, helped in part by Arsenal’s failure to secure his services.
The hype only increased when, on debut, he came off the bench against Liverpool and looked electric, so much so that Gary Neville claimed that he “wouldn’t like to play against him!”
However, that performance ended up being something of a flash in the pan, as the 24-year-old ended the season with just two assists in 17 appearances.
The following campaign was not much better, as in 41 appearances, he scored just seven goals and provided four assists.
Appearances
73
Minutes
3612′
Goals
10
Assists
11
Goal Involvements per Match
0.28
Minutes per Goal Involvement
172′
Unfortunately, things somehow got even worse for the player and the club as he was provisionally suspended after failing a drugs test last December, and was then charged by the FA in June, which could see him handed a four-year ban.
Now, while Chelsea don’t have anyone in the team in danger of something that bad, they do have a previously hyped winger who is underperforming and needs to be dropped.
The Chelsea ace Maresca must axe
Unfortunately for Maresca, you could probably make an argument for why several players need to be dropped following Chelsea’s dire display against Leeds United.
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However, while the defence was obviously a massive problem, the attack was not much better.
Moreover, while he wasn’t the worst player on the pitch, far from it, to be fair, Jamie Gittens once again offered very little.
Last season, the then Borussia Dortmund star was scoring and assisting goals for fun, so much so that he ended the campaign with 17 goal involvements and was even labelled “England’s best left winger” by Sky Sports’ Dougie Critchley.
However, aside from the odd bit of skill here and there, the Stamford Bridge faithful have seen very little to get excited about from the 21-year-old, so much so, in fact, that one analyst has gone as far as calling him a “pointless signing.”
Appearances
32
11
Minutes
1784′
401′
Goals
8
0
Assists
4
2
Goal Involvements per Match
0.37
0.18
Minutes per Goal Involvement
148.66′
200.5′
Now, that is almost certainly too far at this point in the season, but with just one goal and five assists in 17 games for the West Londoners, it’s not hard to see where he is coming from, especially considering how hyped Sterling and Mudryk were before they arrived and eventually disappointed.
So, with all that said and a must-win game against Bournemouth this afternoon, Maresca has to take the Englishman out of the team.
Granted, the other options are not ideal either, but at least Alejandro Garnacho has more league goal involvements in fewer games.
Moreover, the manager could return to the winger pairing of Pedro Neto and Estevao, which did reasonably well against Arsenal.
Ultimately, while there is still plenty of time for Gittens to make good on his vast potential, it is hard not to think of the likes of Sterling and Mudryk when watching him struggle to stamp his authority on games.
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