Former Chelsea ace blasts club’s hoarding of young players

Nathaniel Chalobah says he left Chelsea because he did not believe the club would give him a chance to play.

The Premier League champions have been criticised for their policy of signing young players to long contracts before loaning them out, building their value, and selling them for big prices without ever really giving them a chance to impress at home.

And Chalobah, who opted to leave Chelsea for Watford on a permanent deal this summer following six previous loan spells at clubs says fear of being lost in the system was what drove him away from Stamford Bridge.

“It’s not about proving anyone wrong. It’s about working myself and helping the team out and seeing what I can do,” he said.

“Chelsea offered me a new contract but I wanted to come out and give myself a chance to play. I think being at Chelsea I would have signed a new contract and been sent back out on loan, so that was the choice I had to make.

“The conversation I had with the manager was positive but it was a decision I had to make after being on loan six times, coming back and forth, it felt like if I had signed a new deal I would have been loaned out again.”