Frank Lampard has been giving his honest account of the reasons behind David Luiz leaving Chelsea on deadline day, to join local rivals Arsenal.
Luiz completed his £8 million move before the 5pm deadline, and was announced as an Arsenal player shortly afterwards, via their official website.
Welcome to The Arsenal, @DavidLuiz_4 😄
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) August 8, 2019
There were various rumours circulating as to why Luiz had suddenly left Chelsea, without any kind of warning. It all happened so quickly.
Matt Law of The Telegraph seemed to believe that there were some fall outs during the week, and Luiz trained away from the rest of the group, making it clear he wanted to leave the club.
Bit more detail emerging on Luiz
– He did not train with the Chelsea first team on Wednesday
– There have been a series of fall-outs surrounding him this week
– He has made it clear he wants to go
– Arsenal are interested
– Wowzers— Matt Law (@Matt_Law_DT) August 7, 2019
The Brazilian was a core figure in Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea team last season, playing in the majority of matches.
He was expected to have a similar role under Frank Lampard this season, being a senior figure.
However, Lampard explains that he was completely honest with Luiz in a series of conversations between the pair last week, when he explained that he has a lot of quality in that area, and nobody is guaranteed playing time.
Speaking via a press conference this afternoon, as reported by The Mirror, Lampard said:
“We’d had some conversations over the last week, honest conversations because I know David well. And I think the conclusion of that was that he moved on.
“It’s an area of the pitch where I have competition. And people will be needing to make that shirt their own, as they will all over the pitch.
“I have people competing for the position. I don’t have it set in my mind and that’s what everyone has to understand. And that will be the same everywhere.”
