‘‘I wanted to keep”- Former Chelsea boss admits he wasn’t keen to sell Cobham favourite

Frank Lampard reveals we didn’t expect Chelsea to sell several academy players including Fikayo Tomori

Former Chelsea boss Frank Lampard has claimed he was taken aback by how the club sold several homegrown players like Fikayo Tomori, and he didn’t expect plenty of them to leave the club.

Lampard, who was first appointed manager of Chelsea in 2019, enjoyed a great spell before getting sacked in 2021. He later returned as interim manager in 2022, when the Blues finished 12th in the Premier League.

During his initial time as manager, the midfielder provided academy players such as Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham, Reece James, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Andreas Christensen, Billy Gilmour, and Fikayo Tomori.

However, since his exit, only James has been at the club, while all of them have been sold to distinct clubs, which has surprised the 45-year-old. The former Everton player said he understood why many academy players left, as he told Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football (h/t Metro):

“Fikayo Tomori I wanted to keep, but at the same time I had five centre-backs. He was in and out of the team and he got frustrated and he wanted to leave, that happens with young players.”

Most of them never had a future at Chelsea, and it makes sense that many of them decided to leave the team. Mount wanted to leave, but Callum Hudson-Odoi’s performance left the Blues unimpressed, and they ultimately sold him to Nottingham Forest. The likes of Billy Gilmour and Tammy Abraham also did not last long despite promising starts.

More Chelsea News

• Mauricio Pochettino reveals that Chelsea star Levi Colwill is not seriously injured
• Mauricio Pochettino causes Chelsea frenzy after failing to recognise Malang Sarr
• Fabrizio Romano reveals Chelsea have approached Corinthians for Gabriel Moscardo

However, our only regret has been losing Christensen for free. He was a top centre-back under Thomas Tuchel and should have stayed but we couldn’t keep him. Reece James remains one of the academy players who is still at Chelsea. Sometimes it’s necessary to try your luck elsewhere when things don’t go as planned at the club where you grew.

In the case of half of the players, this was the case because the majority of them weren’t in the previous manager’s ambitions and some of them actively sought a transfer.