'I was given just an hour to leave Chelsea – it was so unexpected'

Danny Drinkwater recalled how Chelsea tried to force him out at the very end of one transfer window in particular – claiming he was given just one hour to find a new club.

The midfielder kicked off his career at Manchester United in 2009 but failed to make a senior appearance for the Red Devils – instead enjoying loan spells at the likes of Huddersfield, Cardiff, Watford and Barnsley. He made a permanent move to Leicester City in 2012, winning the Premier League under Claudio Ranieri during the 2015/16 season before signing a five-year contract with Chelsea for £35million.

However, the 34-year-old's tenure at Stamford Bridge was incredibly rocky to say the least. He made just 12 appearances for the Blues in the 2017/18 campaign as he fell out of favour, with the likes of N'Golo Kante, Cesc Fabregas and even fellow flop Tiemoue Bakayoko preferred. However, when Maurizio Sarri took the reins of the club following Antonio Conte's dismissal in July 2018, Drinkwater saw his relationship with the club really collapse.

Speaking on the High Performance podcast, Drinkwater explained: "I'd be going into training knowing I wasn't playing, and sometimes, not even training. It was so strange. Like, I'd go to training and I'd be doing fitness on my own whilst the lads were training, and I've never been in that position in my life, and I was like, 'what is going on here? This is so foreign to me this'.

"And it's like, 'the f***? I'm here to play football, I'm not an athletics runner. Like, get me on the pitch'. It was Sarri, who's a great guy by the way and we got along top, it was so strange. We got along top, I just don't think we seen eye-to-eye. I don't know if it's from him, looking back now."

Speaking about the very end of the summer transfer window in 2018, Drinkwater revealed: "But, you know, I was given an hour to like find an English club, and I was like. So we had the meeting, he pulled me into his office – this is like an hour before the window closes – and Gianfranco Zola's in there, who's again a really nice guy. And we're talking just having a chat and then he goes, 'let's talk serious' kind of thing. 'I think you're going to get frustrated with your playing time this season'."

Confused by what he was hearing, Drinkwater said that he replied: "'Where's this come from? I've got an hour, what's going on? I've just had a kid, I ain't going anywhere'. So what do you want me to do?

"He's like, 'well...', 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's going way against what I wanted.

"'Do I just go to Italy or go to Spain in the leagues? Nah man, my priority is my kid you've got no chance. This is all changed now. I'm sticking in, I'm settling here'."

Rather than commit to a new club on a permanent basis, Drinkwater was loaned out to Burnley, Aston Villa, Kasimpasa and Reading, before he was released by his parent club in July 2022.

Come October 2023, after not playing professional football for over a year, Drinkwater announced that he was retiring from the beautiful game.

Despite leading Chelsea to the 2018/19 Europa League title thanks to a 4-1 win over London rivals Arsenal in the final, Sarri's tenure at Chelsea was incredibly short-lived – departing Stamford Bridge at the end of the season to explore other avenues with Juventus.

Meanwhile, Drinkwater feels as though he wasted five years of his career with the Blues, telling Sky Sports in 2023: "Yeah, it feels like 'what have you thrown those five years away?' If you'd stayed at Leicester, if you didn't get injured and if the club treated you differently.

"They're all ifs. It's frustrating, 100 per cent. Don't think I'm still not burning about how it's gone. I still kick myself for it. But on the other side, am I going to keep kicking myself, because I can't change it. Can I help myself going forward? That's why I went on loan, why I went to Aston Villa and Burnley on loan, which didn't work, and going to Turkey at the age of 30 – I never thought I'd do that.

"It's also the reason I dropped down to the Championship. I've been trying to do the right things. As I've tried doing them, something's gone wrong."