Former Chelsea midfielder Danny Drinkwater says he had to walk out of one meeting with Maurizio Sarri during his time at Stamford Bridge.
Danny Drinkwater has just announced his retirement and has been speaking about his career on High Performance.
The 33-year-old joined Chelsea from Leicester City back in 2017 when Antonio Conte was at the club, but his switch to west London did not go to plan.
He only managed to make 23 appearances in total for the Blues and featured just once under Conte’s successor Sarri, a cameo in the 2018/19 Community Shield.
Danny Drinkwater’s meeting with Maurizio Sarri and Gianfranco Zola
Drinkwater has shared how one meeting with Sarri and his assistant at Chelsea, club legend Zola, went down after he was told to find a new club.
Speaking on High Performance, the former England international said: “At the start I did [have a conversation]. It was Sarri. He was a great guy by the way and we get along too, it was so strange. I just don’t think we saw eye to eye, I don’t even know if it was from him looking back now, but I was given an hour to find an English club.
“We had a meeting, he pulled me into his office, this is like an hour before the window closes. And Gianfranco Zola is in there, who is also a really nice guy, and we are talking, just having chat and then he goes, ‘Let’s talk serious. I think you are going to get frustrated with your playing time this season.’
“I was like what? They had just signed Jorginho which was fair. But I had been a part of his pre-season plans and was always playing games. So I was like where’s this come from, I’ve got an hour, what’s going on? And they were like no, no, there are a load of Italian clubs. But I had just had a kid, so I was like I’m not going anywhere, so what do you want me to do? So I just walked out.
“It was a difficult one that, because I was in a position where first of all it was a surprise and secondly it was going way against what I wanted so then it was like do I go to Italy or Spain? But I was like no, my priority is my kid, you have got no chance.”
Danny Drinkwater can be pleased with his career
While his spell at Chelsea obviously did not go well, Drinkwater can be more than satisfied with what he managed to accomplish in the game.
He was a Premier League winner at Leicester and managed to play for the Three Lions on three occasions.
According to Transfermarkt, Drinkwater made 104 appearances in the English top flight, which is something to be proud of.
His move to Chelsea, though, is a lesson, especially to young players, that the grass is not always greener over at the bigger clubs.
If Drinkwater could go back in time, you would imagine that he would have stayed at Leicester instead of joining their Premier League rivals.
What’s done is done, though, and again, Drinkwater had a good career overall, with that Premier League triumph at the King Power Stadium the highlight of it. He will not be happy with the way it fizzled out, but it was still a good one, nonetheless.
