Enzo Maresca has advised Raheem Sterling and Ben Chilwell that they will have to leave Chelsea to play regular football, but insisted that his bloated squad was “not a mess”.

The London club secured their latest summer signing on Wednesday as Joao Felix sealed a return to Stamford Bridge, with Conor Gallagher completing a move the other way to Atletico Madrid.

It now leaves the club looking to offload perhaps as many as a dozen players before the end of the transfer window as they try to whittle down their senior playing group.

Maresca left both Sterling and Chilwell out of his travelling squad for the Conference League play-off clash with Servette on Thursday having also omitted the pair for Sunday’s Premier League opener against Manchester City.

And the Italian, who replaced Mauricio Pochettino at the helm this summer, has told the England internationals that their best hope of featuring regularly lie elsewhere.

“The only thing I can say is that I try to be honest with all of them in this moment, the noise is from outside,” Maresca said. “More than 15 players are training apart, they are not with the team.

“I spoke with Raheem [Sterling] before Manchester City, I said that he is going to struggle to get minutes with us. With Chilly [Chilwell] I said he is a lovely guy, but with his position, he’s going to struggle with us. It’s not brutal, it’s honest.

“I am not working with 42 players, I am working with 21 players [in first-team training]. It’s not a mess like it looks from outside. The other players can even have 20 years contract, it is not my point. I don’t care.”

Maresca added that it was “almost impossible” to keep everyone happy after Sterling’s representatives issued a statement seeking “clarity” just an hour before Chelsea kicked off the new league season against the champions.

The 29-year-old had expected to feature against his former club but was omitted entirely with Maresca favouring other options.

Romelu Lukaku, Kepa Arrizabalaga and Carney Chukwuemeka are among those who could also depart in the next nine days before the window shuts on Friday 30 August.

Maresca was pleased, though, to conclude a seven-year deal for Felix, who made 20 appearances on loan with Chelsea during the 2022/23 season.

“He is a good player, a talent,” the manager said of his new Portuguese recruit. The club already knows him from two years ago. He can play different positions with us, inside, as a nine, outside.”