Former Chelsea midfielder and manager, Frank Lampard, has criticised the club’s decision to sell so many of their academy graduates.
The Englishman said he was surprised, stating specifically that he did not want to let Fikayo Tomori leave during his first spell in charge at Stamford Bridge.
Lampard was Chelsea boss between 2019 and 2021.
His team was largely made up of the club’s talented academy players such as Reece, Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Andreas Christensen, Billy Gilmour and many others who have all now left the club apart from James.
The former England international was shown a graphic of all the youngsters who have now left the club during an interview with Sky Sports and he said, “I think if you look across that list I’m slightly surprised by it.
“At that time I would have expected more players to stay longer. I think every player in there is a different story and sometimes you read between the lines.
“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.
“But within that I did think some of those players would stay, but we are in the modern world working with the ownerships of clubs and the sporting directors who are not seeing academy players with maybe what I saw and what fans saw.
“I’m talking about fans that come to Stamford Bridge, they feel a real connection to players who came through.
“And I thought that was a real strength of this time, even as I left the club, I thought you could see players that would be there for a number of years.
Maybe they’ve lost that to a degree. We spoke to Conor [Gallagher] a few minutes ago and I think that’s a nice thing, if I’m a fan I like seeing a boy that’s come through.
“It’s not the be all and end all, you need good players to succeed. But at that point I thought more players would have stayed the course.”