Revealed: Why Frank Lampard is to be blamed for Rudiger’s contract situation at Chelsea
Chelsea will be losing Antonio Rudiger for free at the end of the season, as Chelsea fans are so worried.
However, speaking after the game against West Ham, Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel confirmed that Rudiger would be leaving the club at the end of the season.
The news came as a big blow to fans of the club, as Rudiger has grown into a world-class defender under Thomas Tuchel.
It’s hard to see how a big club would so easily lose one of its best players for free – a player who’s now one of the best in the world in his position.
Former Chelsea captain John Terry has made known his feelings clear about Rudiger’s departure on social media as he replied to a post announcing the news on Instagram with: “How have we let this man go?”
Indeed, John Terry spoke the mind of every Chelsea fan – how are we losing Rudiger for free?
Truth be told – only two people can be blamed here – the Chelsea board and former Chelsea manager Frank Lampard.
Surely, the Chelsea board must take a share of the blame. Rudiger’s contract should have long been settled before it got into its final season.
Also, the board didn’t recognise the worth of the player during negotiations as they refused to offer him anything close to what he wanted for months before the sanctions came, even when other top clubs were circling around him.
Truth be told – the cost of signing a new top player to replace Rudiger will be more than triple of what the club would have paid to keep him, when you consider transfer fee plus wages. Besides, how many world-class defenders are available out there?
Back to the subject of Frank Lampard being a major cause of losing Rudiger.
When as Chelsea manager, Rudiger was already on his way out of Chelsea. The German was thrown into periphery, and at one point didn’t play for months under Frank Lampard’s reign.
In Frank Lampard’s second season at the club, plans were already on board to ship out the defender from Chelsea, as he was deemed expendable, so there was no way the club could have negotiated a deal with Rudiger at the time when the manager wanted him out.
It was under Thomas Tuchel’s watch last season that Rudiger started to get back his game and developed into being a world-class defender. But then, the Chelsea board should have sorted this out at the end of last season and offered a tangible deal to the Belgian.
A case of passiveness and misplaced priority have seen Chelsea lose a top player. But then, Chelsea have a knack for always coming out stronger.