Raheem Sterling and Ben Chilwell not in Chelsea's Premier League plans; Landon Donovan starts with Wave win

Hey there! We may be light on midweek action, but there are still plenty of games -- and transfers -- to keep up with as we wait for another batch of matches over the weekend. I'm Pardeep Cattry with the latest

Thursday, Aug. 22
🌍 Concacaf W Champions Cup: Tigres vs. Monterrey, 9 p.m. ➡️ Paramount+

⚽ The Forward Line 🔵 Chelsea's transfer saga continues

Chelsea got a pair of long-awaited deals over the line on Wednesday, sending Conor Gallagher to Atletico Madrid and re-signing Joao Felix a year after his brief loan spell at the club, but are still stuck with plenty of roster problems as transfer deadline day nears.

While Gallagher's transfer comes after months of speculation that Chelsea would need to get him off their books to comply with the Premier League's profit and sustainability rules, adding Felix to the team still keeps the roster at 44 players -- far more than the 25 allowed in a Premier League squad. Their bloated team continues to create confusion around what the Blues' actual plans are on the pitch, and, as Nico Cantor notes, potentially an unworkable situation for new manager Enzo Maresca.

• Cantor: "You can't have this many people on your team because it's too much. … A lot of people might not be comfortable with this situation so if I'm Maresca -- it would behoove him to go to someone and say, 'Look, these are my 32 or 28 guys that I'm going to use for the season. Everybody else, I'm sorry but go train with the reserves,' because you can't have too many voices in the locker room."

The oversized roster is definitely not ideal for Maresca, who took just 28 players on Chelsea's preseason tour of the U.S. and admitted Wednesday that he is just working with 21 players, not the 40-plus that are under contract. The downsized group means Maresca has had to exclude a handful of high-profile players, most notably Raheem Sterling and Ben Chilwell. The manager took a mild tone when discussing Sterling's future with Chelsea on Sunday, but suggested on Wednesday those players might not be part of his plans this season.

• Maresca: "I am not working with 42 players. More than 15 players are training apart and not with the team. I spoke with Raheem before the City game, I said he will struggle to get minutes with us. With Chilly, I said he is a lovely guy but because of his position, he will struggle. I am not saying Raheem is not a good player but I prefer different kinds of wingers -- that is why. I did not see Raheem [after the match when he asked for clarification through his representatives]. If I sit with Raheem, I will tell him the exact same things I told him. Everything was clear."

Landon Donovan kicked off his interim stint as the head coach of the NWSL's San Diego Wave with a 2-0 win over Panama's Santa Fe on Tuesday, the day the group stage of the inaugural Concacaf W Champions Cup began. Maria Sanchez opened the scoring just two minutes into a dominant performance, while Kristen McNabb finished things off with a goal in the 64th minute. The win is the Wave's first in their last three games and only their second since early May, cycling through two coaches in the meantime before landing on Donovan to close out the season.

The Wave's hire of the U.S. men's national team legend came as a surprise to many when it was announced late last week, to some degree adding to the chaos the team has experienced this season. Last year's NWSL Shield winners currently sit 10th in the league and have just three regular season wins, leading them to fire head coach Casey Stoney in June. Donovan is the team's second interim coach after Paul Buckle led the team for a brief spell, and the ex-USMNT player aims to offer a sense of stability despite the constant changes the Wave players have experienced this year -- and despite the current temporary status of his role.

Donovan told members of the media on Monday that he took the role after Wave president Jill Ellis asked him if he knew any candidates for the job, opting to toss his own hat into the ring because he missed coaching. The San Diego resident suggested he was not using the role at the Wave as a stepping stone to anything, admitting that he turned down four MLS jobs after the now-defunct USL Championship side San Diego Loyal from 2020 to 2022. Donovan was also frank about sticking around at the Wave as long as they will have him, even after this season.

• Donovan: "What we've agreed on is through the end of the season, and we'll go from there. We just evaluate how everything's gone, and we'll go from there. The good thing with Jill is we're just we're very honest with each other, and we both understand the challenges of leadership and how difficult it is. So instead of beating around the bush, we're just honest. We both said, 'Look, if it goes well, let's have the conversation. If it doesn't, one side doesn't want it or the other, no problem.' There's no hard feelings, and we'll move on, but let's put our whole heart into it and go for it, and then we'll figure out where we go from there."

Despite the downward turn the Wave's season has taken, Donovan said the team remains ambitious about winning trophies and has placed a lot of importance on both the Concacaf W Champions Cup and NWSL regular season, which resumes this weekend after a break for the Olympics. While the Wave are amongst the favorites to advance out of their group in the Champions Cup, there's a little bit of work to do in the NWSL. They are currently three points out of a playoff spot with 10 games to go, but will need to quickly find form in a very competitive league in order to keep their playoff streak alive.

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