Chelsea ‘spite’ rules logic as Maresca told injury solution is ‘not an option’

September 26, 2025
8:08 pm

Amid suggestions that Chelsea only have one fit senior centre-back for the visit of Brighton on Saturday after Tosin Adarabioyo joined Levi Colwill, Wesley Fofana and Benoit Badiashile on the Blues injury list, it’s important to note that that’s absolutely not the case. Axel Disasi does still exist.

Along with Raheem Sterling, he’s been forced to train alone from the rest of his teammates – yes, they are technically still his teammates – having failed to find a new club in the summer.

Former Manchester City defender Nedum Onuoha, who knows exactly how the Frenchman feels having been exiled into a similar ‘bomb squad’ under Roberto Mancini in his time at the Etihad, accused Chelsea and other clubs to have taken the same brutal steps, like Manchester United this summer, of being ‘spiteful’.

The PFA has stepped in to ensure that Sterling and Disasi have the platform to train to an optimum level despite not being involved with the senior team, but the way in which Enzo Maresca shut down a reporter’s question about the potential mental health implications of their ousting ahead of the game against Manchester United provided clear evidence of the clinical manner in which they’re treating these two human beings.

“My father is 75 years old and for 50 years he has been a fisherman, working from two o’clock in the morning to 10 o’clock in the morning. This is sad in life – not a player and the way that they work.”

After that blatant bid to gaslight the Chelsea duo into getting on with their miserable working lives, Maresca merely said the “situation is the situation”, and apparently, one that even a massive injury crisis can’t alter, as the Chelsea boss revealed ahead of the Brighton game when asked whether Disasi may be handed an opportunity.

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“There is not any information from the club to consider [playing Axel Disasi], so it’s not currently an option,” he said.

There’s definitely a question to be asked there as to why Maresca can’t tell the club chiefs he wants a Chelsea player to be available for selection. It’s a truly baffling stance to take.

Josh Acheampong has reportedly recovered from flu and may well start the game. But what happens if he or Trevoh Chalobah then get injured? Marc Cucurella at centre-back? Reece James.

Chelsea clearly don’t think Disasi is good enough, and fine, but just how sh*t or disruptive to the harmony of the squad (we’ve not heard anything with regard to a sort of negative impact on his teammates, by the way) must they believe him to be for them to continue to disregard him in these circumstances?

At what point would they turn to him? Would they ever, or, having made their spiteful bed do they see no other option but to lie in it?

We would love nothing more than for Disasi to tell Maresca to f*** off if he does indeed welcome him back into the fold, but the grim reality of the absurd imbalance of power between footballers and the clubs that pay their wages means the expelled centre-back would be fined for snubbing that request from the club which is currently doing everything possible to wipe him from their consciousness.