Gabby Agbonlahor has criticized Chelsea for leaving Cole Palmer out of their Europa Conference League group stage team.
Last week, the Blues surprised everyone by leaving Palmer, Romeo Lavia, and Wesley Fofana out of their competition squad. Enzo Maresca’s side just qualified for the Conference League after defeating Swiss club Servette 3-2 on aggregate – and their top player will miss the forthcoming group games against Gent, Panathinaikos, and Armenian side Noah.
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Palmer has started all of Chelsea’s games this season after scoring 27 goals and providing 15 assists in his debut season following a £42.5 million move from Manchester City. Chelsea want to limit the 22-year-old’s minutes to avoid burnout, but former Aston Villa striker Agbonlahor believes the call means something else.
“I think it’s disrespectful to the competition because they wouldn’t do that for the Europa League or the Champions League,” said the footballer on talkSPORT. “They’re looking at the Europa Conference League like, ‘Eurgh, we’re Chelsea and we shouldn’t be in this… let’s rest our players who may pick up knocks’.”
“Especially for Lavia and Fofana. They’ve had injury issues, and they’re probably thinking, ‘Rest them in the Europa Conference League; we can play a weakened side and then focus on the Premier League with some of these players. To be honest, I believe it’s quite disrespectful to the competition.
“If I’m a team playing against them, I’d look at them and say, ‘Come on, that’s a team talk…they’re resting a few players, not putting them in the squad because they’re thin there, the rest of their squad can beat you.'”
“I believe that if I were playing against them, I would say, ‘Oh, Palmer doesn’t have to play, does he? Is this a bad competition? But I do get it. You need a rest as well, the players do.”
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