10 key players. 😖

 Caughtoffside have a lot of great interviews every week on their site, but of course as you’d expect it’s often Stan Collymore creating talking points.

Today he’s picked out three Chelsea players who have disappointed and could be sold as the Clearlake revolution goes on:

“Kai Havertz and Hakim Ziyech. I think all those names will be surplus to requirements come the end of the season.”

We’ve heard a lot of discussion about those two – but Collymore throws a much more surprising name into the mix:

“They also have big decisions to make on some players – Raheem Sterling for example. Do they stick or twist? I don’t think he’s doing anywhere near enough to warrant having a long-term future at Stamford Bridge.”

Now we can’t see Chelsea selling Sterling anytime soon, but we agree that if he is poor all season, we may see players brought in to challenge him for his currently guaranteed starting spot, long term.

It also feels like Sterling is the kind of player who will benefit most when the rest of the team is doing well. He’s peripheral at best at the moment, but that’s because the ball isn’t getting forward and he’s not able to do what he does best, causing havoc in the 18 year box.

So while we’re disappointed for sure, we’re not anywhere close to writing off Raheem yet.