Chelsea ‘already regret’ allowing Fikayo Tomori to leave for AC Milan.
The Blues academy product was sent out on loan to Milan in January by Frank Lampard having played just 45 minutes in the Premier League in the first half of the season.
With competition from Antonio Rudiger, Thiago Silva, Andreas Christensen and Kurt Zouma at centre-back, Lampard deemed the 23-year-old surplus to requirements.
Early winner: Zinedine Zidane and order restored
And Gazzetta dello Sport (via Sport Witness) – looking ahead to Milan’s crunch Europa League clash against Manchester United on Thursday – explain why Chelsea have made a mistake in allowing the young Englishman to leave.
The report claims Tomori’s displays ‘against Roma and Napoli have brought the personality of a potential champion into focus’, adding ‘it is no coincidence that in London, they already regret it’.
The decision to loan Tomori out made sense, but the €28m option to buy – which always seemed like a daft allowance by Chelsea – is now thought to be considered a bargain by the Milan bosses.
It will be difficult given the financial restraints of the pandemic, but the club are ‘willing to complete’ the deal if possible.
When Tomori was asked why he had been frozen out by Lampard, he said: “I was suddenly out of the squad and I don’t really know why. I just thought I needed to work hard. Then I went to speak to the manager and he said you’ve just got to train harder, so I took that on the chin and thought that’s what I had to do.
“Mentally, it was difficult because you just want to be playing and on the pitch, and feel part of the team. And it was difficult for me because I wasn’t really feeling part of the team and I was wondering what had happened. I was trying to do extra and push myself more but, at that time, nothing seemed to work and nothing was explained to me.
“It was so frustrating. 2020, football-wise, was very, very difficult, especially after the way 2019 had gone for me playing games. From being at 100 to literally going down to zero and then not knowing the reason why it had gone to zero, it was very challenging.”
And now new boss Thomas Tuchel has conceded he has not had chance to consider Tomori’s Chelsea situation.
“To be very, very honest, right here I did not spend too many minutes thinking about Tomori – not because I don’t like him and not that I don’t see potential, but every minute here at Cobham is for the guys who are here,” said Tuchel.
“It is tradition at Chelsea that many players are on loan. They get minutes somewhere else when they cannot make regular minutes here.
“This is good because it is always the target for me to have players that can make it in different circumstances, that can show their qualities in different cultures and clubs. This is always a good sign.
“We will have this talk in the next weeks and months about the guys who are away on loan but of course I have a general impression of Tomori, which means he has high, high potential.
“But I am not into details right now. This will come when it comes.”
The post Chelsea ‘already regret’ Lampard’s ‘champion’ defender snub appeared first on Football365.