Raheem Sterling ‘punching back’ on behalf of Conor Gallagher and Trevoh Chalobah, says Gary Neville

Gallagher and Chalobah are Chelsea academy products but have been frozen out as the club look to finalise exits

Gary Neville has claimed Raheem Sterling may have been “punching back” on behalf of Chelsea outcasts Conor Gallagher and Trevoh Chalobah by publicly seeking clarity on his own future at the club just before their Premier League opener.
Neville, who was once one of Sterling’s coaches with England, said it was “unusual” for the winger to have approved a statement issued on his behalf after he was left out of his club’s squad for their 2-0 defeat to Manchester City.
Former Manchester United defender Neville said on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football: “I can never agree with a player putting a statement out an hour and a half before kick-off, because of the fact that he’s got colleagues and team-mates, and I think that you respect them. Forget the club. Forget the manager. It happened with Wayne Rooney at Manchester United once. ‘You’re our team-mate. Don’t distract from what we’re doing’. So, I think Raheem probably needs to go in and have a chat with the players and say, ‘Look, that was poor timing’.
“What I would say is, for Raheem – who I think’s a really good lad, I love him to bits, I worked with him for a long time – he’s experienced now and I think if he’s looking at everything that’s happening behind the scenes there, for him to do what he did yesterday, he must be seeing stuff that he doesn’t like and feels like he needs to punch back.
“And he might be punching back on behalf of himself. But he may be punching back on behalf of Gallagher, he may be punching back on behalf of Chalobah, who’s with the development squad. He might be thinking, ‘I’ve got to alert people to what’s going on here. The only way I can do that is through my own situation’.
“Because it is unusual to put a statement out like that and I wouldn’t expect Raheem Sterling to have done that.”
“I can never agree with a player putting a statement out an hour and a half before kick-off.” @Gnev2 says it’s ‘unusual’ from Raheem Sterling after the player’s representatives released a statement on his Chelsea future 🤕 pic.twitter.com/RRhLpTSRXu
But Neville’s take drew a scathing response from fellow Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher, who retorted: “He’s not doing that for the team or the dressing room. He’s thinking about himself. He’s not John Terry or Frank Lampard at Chelsea looking after the club.
“He’s made a mistake, his PR team or his agent – whatever. He should just basically come out, apologise to the manager and just get cracking in training. I don’t think he’s looking after anybody else.”