Gary Cahill: Difficult For Me To Respect Sarri

By Max Wise

Chelsea captain, Gary Cahill, has criticized manager, Maurizio Sarri, for giving him limited first team opportunities this season.

Cahill will leave Chelsea at the end of the season, having barely had a look-in in the Chelsea set up despite leading the club to FA Cup glory last season.

The 33-year-old former England international has been frozen out of the Chelsea side for majority of the campaign, featuring just twice in the Premier League all season.

Cahill believes Sarri did not offer him enough explanation as to why he has been ostracized from the team and will depart Stamford Bridge after seven-and-a-half seasons at the club.

"It's been really terrible for me personally," Cahill told the Sunday Telegraph. "It will just be erased out of my head when I leave Chelsea. My last memory will be last season's FA Cup final.

"It's been very difficult. I have played on a regular basis over the previous six seasons and I've won everything with Chelsea, so to be watching from the stands is something I didn't expect.

"I know how the whole club works, I've got a big relationship with all the players and staff, and yet none of that has been utilized.

"If you are not playing a player, any player, for two, three, four games, then you don't have to give a reason for that. But if it gets to eight or nine games, then you have to explain the situation. What's going on?

"But the manager hasn't done that. I see some of the situations with players who won the title with Chelsea, not just myself, and it just hasn't been right.

"It makes it very hard for me to have respect for someone who has not respected what some of us have won with the club."

Cahill joined Chelsea from Bolton Wanderers in January 2012 for a reported fee of £7m, and has won two Premier League titles, one Champions League, one Europa League, two FA Cups and one League Cup at the club.