Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger has really been in the drama at the club over the last couple of weeks.
He lost his regular starting place under Frank Lampard, albeit he was managing to play a few more games towards the end.
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Then when Lampard got sacked, Rudiger’s named was often mentioned in the fall-out of those players who had started to cause some dressing room unrest, due to not playing as much under Lampard.
Thomas Tuchel arrived and has given every player a clean slate, and some of them a new lease of life, including Rudiger himself.
Rudiger says he would have stayed at Chelsea whether Lampard stayed or not, and now he suggests that any new contract is up to the board and he is waiting for it to be offered.
The German international has a deal until 2022 and at the moment there are no signs of a new one being discussed.
Rudiger opened up in an interview with Sky Sports.
He said:
“I’m a competitor, I want to play. Obviously it is frustrating and it was the first time in my career that I had this type of situation.
“You just have to get ready. You have to always make yourself available and always be ready in your mindset. Maybe in the future – I hope not, but this is football – someone gets injured and maybe they are going to say your name and you have to be up there and ready.
“This is how I prepare for every game. Although maybe you know you’re not playing because you can see it through the training, but in my head, I always prepared like I was going to play so that I’m always ready in my mind.
“Inside myself, I was always calm and relaxed, I’ll be very honest. I was not going crazy because I was not playing at the beginning and when you’re not in the squad, you think ‘oh wow, what’s happening?’
“But then suddenly I was back in the team and got some games. From that moment on, my head was ‘I’m staying here at Chelsea and trying to fight for my spot’. In the last games of Frank Lampard, I was featuring even more.
“Lampard in or out, I would have stayed anyway.
“The thing is I cannot give myself a new contract. The talks have to come from the board, from Marina [Granovskaia], I’m very calm when it comes to that.”
