Danny Drinkwater became a legend after lifting the premiere title with Leicester City. The English was one of the key pieces and shared the center of the field with Kanté. Like the latter, after proclaiming himself champion, he traveled to London to sign for Chelsea for 45 million pounds in 2017.
In Stamford Bridge he didn’t just fit. The hard competition and injuries made him play only 12 games in the Premier League. The worst came the following year, when Maurizio Sarri took the team’s controls. The center of the Chelsea countryside already had Cesc Fábregas, N’Golo Kanté and Ross Barkley, who joined Jorginho and Kovacic. It was here when hell began for Drinkwater.
Danny Drinkwaterrussell Cheyne
Azpilicueta already notified it
In an interview with Rio Ferdinand, the former Leicester player remembers how he lived that transfers window and the advice he gave him by then Captain, César Azpilicueta: “He warned me that I would have to look for me a new team before starting the season.
Despite the Spanish recommendation, Drinkwater decided to stay and fight for a position. In fact, he had minutes in the 2-0 defeat against Manchester City in the Community Shield. However, the last day of the market, he received a message that he describes as “a joke.” The midfielder was summoned to Sarri’s office after training, where they told him that he was not in the club’s first team and that he would have to look for departure, at the end of the market.
Drinkwater.
“Sarri told me: ‘I think you should be given up.’ Drinkwater had just had a baby and refused to go anywhere. Sarri assured him that he would not have minutes and that he would be frustrated, but he accepted the consequences. Finally, he accumulated several assignments in the coming years, until he retired in 2023.