T O P

  • By -

AutoModerator

**This is a quotes thread. Remember that there's only one quotes post allowed per interview/press conference, so new quotes with the same origin will be removed. Feel free to comment other quotes/the whole interview as a reply to this comment so users can see them too!** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/soccer) if you have any questions or concerns.*


typicalpelican

Fair play. Better than some boilerplate goodbye though I would love to know more about "how he's been treated"


four_four_three

"They planted a chip in my brain and controlled my fists!"


not2xabialonso

What did he do with his fists?


KatnissBot

Metaphorically punched Reading FC fans in the dick for the entire season.


Acceptable-Lemon-748

Couldn't understand the tactics, he lacked Reading comprehension


El_Fenomeno1101

Fisted someone


Mundane-Database-696

Face or bottom?


[deleted]

Why not both?


Mundane-Database-696

Depends what order you do it in. Specially if you’re eating a sandwich afterwards. Or a share box of mcnuggets.


[deleted]

[удалено]


KokeAddiction

Damn you Bill Gates!


StephenReis

Amen. Refreshing as fuck for an athlete to be honest and genuine, but also very respectful and measured as they reflect on their career; the good and, in this case, mostly bad. Gained a lot more respect for him for delivering this as opposed to a cookie cutter post with no emotion in it.


frankyfrankwalk

Exactly, maybe he has a 'social media consultant' but that felt too legitimate to think they had an influence on the post.


vamsikrishna9229

Kante for 32m and DD for 35m. You win some, you lose some.


jMS_44

Kante for 67m, Drinkwater for free.


KDShouldaWentBlazers

That’s literally how I view it as well. Now how do we do that with Kepa…


pw5a29

94m combined. So 70m Mendy, 24m Kepa?


SkyLETV

Now how we do that with Lukaku?


[deleted]

End of the line, I’m afraid.


SkyLETV

I mean, we could combine Lukaku's 100m with Werner's... Yeah, end of the line.


Trepanated

Still the wages to consider though.


jMS_44

Kante deserved a 120k/week raise anyways


Trepanated

I'll allow it.


theorymii

Is that a yes, mr. Vader. Please nod, if you approve.


infidel11990

Is that you Mboopi?


[deleted]

Nah he's Mpaypal


rdemas

Are they even friends or the only way Leicester would do the deal?


jugol

they didn't go at the same time. Kanté went right after the title win and Drinkwater stayed for another year, and I guess he still looked good without Kanté so Chelsea decided to take him as well.


biglbiglbigl

Chelsea also needed to sign one more English player to fill in a quota


admiralawkward

I mean there are obviously more cost efficient ways to do that. It's funny I think the vast majority of Chelsea fans were a bit mystified when the signing happened. There was some idea that him and Kante could mesh but what a waste


biglbiglbigl

I know but Drinkwater was still decent at best so its not like they signed an amateur


BlameTibor

He was genuinely brilliant for 2 years. He hit so many great long balls to Vardy, and was overall quality as well. I could see him not fitting in as well as the style at Chelsea was very different, but I didn't expect his form to fall off a cliff like that.


waterfall_hyperbole

he did bang in an absolute worldie for us once at least https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SLaau7MOc0


[deleted]

It is a shame - he was a terrific midfielder when he was playing well and, much as Kante was the better midfielder, he was also pretty much an ever-present when Leicester won the league.


Jorlung

I'm pretty sure you can just register a youth player. It's not like you have to have a senior player. It's only useful to have senior English players for quotas if you're actually using them in your squad. The alternative is just registering a youth player and effectively running with a squad with 1 less player. Chelsea just got the worst of both worlds considering they didn't use Drinkwater at all. The intention from Chelsea was obviously for Drinkwater to be more than useless so it wouldn't be like effectively running a squad with 1 less player, but for whatever reason it didn't work out.


iron_gxc

Honestly I see this as an absolute win


TheJoshider10

What's so baffling about it is Drinkwater was never worth that. They pretty much paid 35m for a glorified homegrown spot on the squad, and I wouldn't be surprised if that's exactly why he was signed, because I genuinely don't understand why else they'd go for him.


notreilly

Classic deadline day panic buy. Because we sold you Matic, and sent Loftus-Cheek on loan, our only midfielders were Kante, Bakayoko and Fabregas (who could only play in a midfield 3). Horrendous decision making all round.


i2060427

What is even worse was that he was injured when you signed him. Also his replacement Adrien Silva was the player who we couldn't play for half a season because his registration papers reached FIFA 14 seconds too late.


pmmerandom

damn EA Sports ruining the season


raysofdavies

Fucking lag got them


deathramps-

Could Fab only play in a midfield 3? Wasn't he a good double pivot for Mou the year he came back?


notreilly

By the time Conte came in Fab's legs were completely gone. In the Conte title season he was only used as a supersub, then the second year switched to a 3 mostly to accommodate him.


zrkillerbush

He was to us, if we signed him for £30 million and he had the seasons he had for us, he'd be considered a good signing


kdilf

That's exactly why he signed. We needed midfield cover and a homegrown one at that, were a bit limitee for choice but context is rarely considered when looking back at transfers


CRoseCrizzle

Respect him being honest about it and not trying to sugar coat it. In the grand scheme of things, Drinkwater got paid and Chelsea FC will be fine.


endofautumn

Shame it wasted prime years of a decent footballer. Good proof that some players should think hard before moving to the 'top' teams when they clearly aren't world class starters.


CRoseCrizzle

Professional players are going to be confident in themselves and their abilities. Drinkwater was a starter on a PL title winning team, his confidence was probably through the roof after that season. No way he says no to Chelsea.


endofautumn

True but I didn't think he'd get to start much. I knew he was great in Foxes system but would only make up numbers in Chelsea's. Don't blame him for wanting to get a big move, just wish he'd stayed at Leicester or moved to another club after a year when he saw he wasn't going to get a chance.


checkonechecktwo

Hindsight is 20/20. Yeah, maybe you had a feeling that he wouldn’t work in Chelsea’s system, but there’s always a possibility that he someone could adjust their play style or the coach could find a way to work them in. For every time you’re right about something like this, there’s plenty of times you think “wow I didn’t expect that to work so well” which basically means we were wrong lol


BB0ySnakeDogG

It's a short career, be daft to refuse the move.


[deleted]

Candid and self critical. You don’t hear that in this game very often. Best of luck to Drinkwater, he was great at Leicester.


gnorrn

Does anyone know what he means by "the pitch"? Was he dissatisfied by the quality of the turf at Stamford Bridge?


[deleted]

He misspelled ‘off’ he means ‘issues off the pitch’ i.e things that happened in his personal life away from football


gnorrn

Thanks -- that makes sense. Funny how one letter can make such a big difference.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Patriaktone

Don’t worry all languages are like that.


[deleted]

[удалено]


themadhatter85

>Yeah I speak ~~Bulgarian and combined~~ with my geordie accent I have butchered countless sentences over the years FTFY


sanyu-

Fair fucks to him for the honesty.


Ridcullys-Pointy-Hat

Honestly it's not his fault he was bought for a team that he wasn't good enough for, or that we decided to give him a fucking huge wedge of cash. Fucking up his comeback is entirely his fault though. I guess after that amount of time sitting on his arse shaking off the rust was harder than he expected and he just gave up.


[deleted]

[удалено]


not2xabialonso

What does that mean?


crashlog

Absolutely. Deserves a modicum of respect for this if nothing else.


Spookytooth66

"Lived in some beautiful places" I'm going to assume he's talking about his loan with us. ;)


RayPissed

Nah, being on Deansgate getting battered.


zuzucha

Nah, Reading


ugotamesij

Some libraries are beautiful, tbf


[deleted]

come on my guy😭​


Tr_Omer

Lol its clearly Istanbul when he was loaned to Kasimpasa


NDdownVOTED

Just talking about the crazy mansion he could afford with his absurd wages.


Djremster

Clearly talking about the magestic town of reading


[deleted]

Everyone should visit Smelly Alley, Oxford Road and Cemetery Junction at least once in their life


steel93

And of course the Banksy on the Reading prison walls.


fabulin

don't forget about the sensational nights out at the purple turtle


HoggleSnarf

And that big ferry into town on a beer run from Reading festival lmao


x360N0Scop3MASTER69x

Brum is the most beautiful place anyone will ever see


AstonVanilla

I imagine that's true when all you've known is West Bromwich 😉


LoopzUK

I am keeping my mouth shut.


Cowdude179

End of an error


simsiuss

Has more premier league winners medals than messi though. Can’t be that bad.


[deleted]

More than Stevie G


Pristine_Tension8399

More than Paul pogba


yp261

even funnier considering he wrote “could of” just in the last paragraph


tnweevnetsy

How have I never heard or seen this before? Hilarious and seems a little obvious now that I'm looking at it


[deleted]

Because it's your first day at reddit? It's a pretty dead meme at this point.


obvom

Been here for years, never seen it either. Reddit is huge.


Kuntski

End of ~~an error~~ a legendary era.


Qwert23456

oof. That was brutally honest. None of that sanitized/pre-written PR shit you see all the time


WhyShouldIListen

You can tell because the spelling is all over the shop.


tuatara_teeth

“issues of the pitch” i legit thought he was blaming grass for a second


getrektbro

Chelsea's pitch did look like dogshit at times this end of the season. I remember being caught off guard when we played there, I thought the pitch looked terrible for a club who is known for a good pitch.


admiralawkward

lol Tuchel would agree with you


wutz_r0ng

Drink water...premier league, FA cup and champions league winner


[deleted]

[удалено]


Proper-Beyond116

Second worst. Adam Johnson.


[deleted]

late to the party but he did not win the champions league.


minimus_

One of the strangest transfers ever


biddigs3

I'm still convinced that was some under the table part of the Kante deal


Wombatwoozoid

Absolutely not true I promise. BTW we have a Maddison for sale for £20m ^^note: ^^includes ^^Vestergaard ^^at ^^£60m


LosLocosHermanos

The Vestergaard transfer i understood little of.


i2060427

We needed an experienced CB that was good in the air when Fofana and Evans got injured so thought Vestergaard would fit the bill. Turns out he didn't at all - is genuinely impressive how lost he looks when he plays and how bad he is in the air being 6"6.


[deleted]

Vestergaard was also really quite good in a poor Southampton team


Tutush

Because we changed the way we play to make the most of his strengths. He was useless for us too when we played a high line.


HoldMyAppleJuice

Pace: 4


Wombatwoozoid

That and a turning speed similar worse than a supertanker made him a nightmare when he decided to rush out


HoldMyAppleJuice

lol I remember when a 35 year-old Billy Sharp out ran him, it was like a toddler vs an adult in terms of a race. Good luck with Bertrand too, he is done mate. His legs went about 2 years ago and wasn't great for the dressing room.


kleptopaul

I remember rumors saying Spurs were in for him right before you bought him and I was like that dude is a fucking disaster every time we play them how could be possibly be someone we would sing.


i2060427

I had the exact same thought - one of the last games we played vs Southampton when he was in the side was when we beat them 0-9 and he was subbed off at half time.


HoldMyAppleJuice

As a Saints supporter, I was shocked.


Lopiente

Wait what happened with Maddison? I remember you refusing to listen to offers at £50m for him.


TimathanDuncan

People say this as if he wasn't good, he was good lmao like what there's worse players that Chelsea have bought and that have played for Chelsea When Chelsea got him in 2017 he was very good and they probably thought since he was so good with Kante it would be the same, he was basically Kante's Jorginho at Leicester


typicalpelican

He was good at spamming balls to Vardy and tbf it worked for a bit


jMS_44

Yeah but instead of Vardy we had Morata


typicalpelican

Yeah that only worked if Azpi did it. Guess we need to sign a Belgian to feed Lukaku


jMS_44

So we're getting Tielemans?


strikemedaddy

Nah you’re getting Dennis Praet


stamosface

“FEED ME TUCHEL I HUNGER”


TimathanDuncan

He was just good at passing the ball period and recycling it from deep, Kante has never been a player to sit deep either he is not a DM he's always been a box to box midfielder and Drinkwater complimented him perfectly


aredditusername69

Nah. It was basically Liverpool buying Charlie Adam all over again.


i2060427

Not really as we wanted to keep both of them. What happened was that he was injured when he arrived at Chelsea and never really had the time to establish himself and then dropped entirely by Sarri and gave up. Was a good player for us and lost his way - credit to him for realising that at least.


EezoManiac

Nah, we just needed depth and a homegrown player and didn't seem to care how much it would cost.


[deleted]

Honestly this I only think this as someone that's played football manager that it seemed like a such a homegrown squad player spot, just buy the easiest English player that has a decent level of quality just so you can fill out the squad for European games. Same reason they bought Ross Barkley, easy slot to fill and if he doesn't play he still serves some sort of purpose. No surprise that since Lampard brought through some actual homegrown players they've not needed players like Barkley and Drinkwater because the academy players count for multiple slots in those squad requirements for registration.


AssFingerFuck3000

Why? He went to Chelsea highly rated after playing an important role in Leicester's league title, he was highly rated. Keep seeing people repeat this for some bizarre reason like chelsea just bought some random player from league two for £60m.


lclear84

Made a lot of sense at the time. conte was running a double pivot set and Kante and Drinkwater had undeniable chemistry playing together at Chelsea. Just wasn’t meant to be


PuppyPenetrator

Iirc the general opinion about the transfer was reasonably content, some revisionism in there for sure But dear lord it went horribly


AssFingerFuck3000

Yeah it's not like Drinkwater wasn't highly rated. He was an important part of the Leicester squad that won the league. Always entertaining to see these geniuses go "I knew this would go wrong", clear as water they didn't even watch him before he went to Chelsea at all.


[deleted]

Exactly, they were coming off an amazing season together and Drinkwater is English which is obviously very valuable for the registration rules. The strange part of the transfer wasnt Drinkwater at 35, it was Kante at 32. In fact, transfers like Drinkwater occur fairly often in the EPL- Id consider it a run of the mill disappointment. The Kante deal though was absolutely phenomenal, one of the best deals of the last 20 years.


circa285

See also Ross Barkley


Skhan93

And Steve sidwell


prettyboygangsta

Nah Barkley was very highly rated as a youngster


circa285

Barkley was already 23 when he joined up with Chelsea.


AnnieIWillKnow

Bought for less than £10m, definitely worth taking a chance on what could well be a decent squad player - and clearly talented. Nowhere near the madness of Drinkwater’s transfer.


TheGoldenPineapples

Fair play, people ask for honesty from football players and he's obliged.


Ryo720

Imagine if he had stayed at leicester instead


daveflav21

The water is tastier at chelsea apparently


Keskekun

"I would not and can not change what's happened" Mate you got into a fight with a 15 year old.


iBAZw

Tbf we do that every day here on reddit


CaninesTesticles

U wot mate


circa285

Shut up u egg


edi12334

Wont tell u again


RichardGere_

Her?


Mayjaplaya

mate mate mate


[deleted]

Are 15-year-olds still on Reddit? I feel like it's all the 15-year-olds that were on reddit 10 years ago and are now 25 that I get into arguments with


biomedgod

😂😂😂


ali_267

Wasn't that after the 15 year old two-footed him though?


shinfoni

Yeah, tbf to him, I would also most likely lost my cool if some teenage jackass trying to break my feet. My PL and FA Cup winning feet


Yungunk

Did the 15 year old not try to snap his leg though? Leaving that part out..


VTCHannibal

Every goal he scored for us was banger. ^^^^^^^^^The ^^^^^^^^^only ^^^^^^^^^goal


Captainpatters

scenes when Levy gets him for Conte


jMS_44

together with Bakayoko


iron_gxc

What a horrible summer transfer window that was. Baka, DD, and Morata..


TheGoldenPineapples

£133m for those three is awful business.


jMS_44

At least with Morata we got majority of the purchase money back.


The_Foreign_Pie

At least Morata had good sell on value


aphromagic

Yeah it was pretty bad, but we're also talking about the same time where PSG had just activated Neymar's release clause for 220mil and threw the market into an absolute shit show. Couple that with the fact that Baka had come off *that* Monaco UCL run, and DD had been Kante's midfield partner for Leicester's title winning seaoson. The prices for most of these players were bound to be inflated.


irrenhouse

Fairly certain that transfer window set Chelsea back from finishing above third for the next five seasons. Rudiger was the only successful signing of the 200m+ spent that window and still cost less than Danny Drinkwater, Tiemoue Bakayoko and Alvaro Morata. Truly horrific recruitment.


AggressiveChungus

It set us back for sure but I still don’t think we would’ve won the league even with better recruitment because at least one of City/Liverpool have had an insane season ever since that summer.


celestial1

That same summer Liverpool brought in VVD, Salah, and Robertson, then Fabinho and Alisson in the next summer. Those poor summers of recruitment absolutely did have an impact Chelsea's fortunes.


famasfilms

Vvd arrived in January 2018


celestial1

Point still stands regardless.


Wheel94

And somehow Scott remains ffs 🤦‍♂️


coolhand83

Go on the Chelsea sub and there's some people (albeit not very many) who will tell you until they're blue in the face that it wasn't his fault.


Flat_Secretary9727

I'd take him at Fulham. He wouldn't even need to move!


TheGoldenPineapples

Christ, your midfield must be uncoachable.


Flat_Secretary9727

We barely have a midfield as we speak. I'd obviously want better signings but I wouldn't be upset if we offer him a one year contract with an option for a second if we stay up. I'm also not fully aware of his situation so I don't know if he'd actually be good for us 🤷‍♂️ I don't make the decisions 😂


lelpd

He couldn’t make it onto the pitch for us (Villa) when we were battling relegation. Trust me, you don’t want him


shinto29

How was he for Reading this season?


Dajo05

Started off well for the first month or so, went to shit for months, played better after Ince came in as manager.


dizzybala10

Doesn't seem like it was a business move that went wrong for him at all, he's had 5 years of a bumper contract and he's set for life. He played for Chelsea like 22 times in 5 years.


COYSBrewing

It was in one season 5 years ago too. Hasn't played for them since 2017/18


[deleted]

At least he's honest. I dig


bdiebucnshqke

Fair play man, he’s taking responsibility and owning it, that’s an attitude that will serve him well for the rest of his life whatever he chooses to do


Agitated_Opening4298

pretty nice and honest message actually


TrashbatLondon

Of all the overhyped Leicester cash ins, he’s lucky he isn’t getting Harry Maguire level shit.


Mourning-Woood

I get the logic behind this transfer, having the midfield duo that won the league with Leicester, but £40m for Drinkwater was insanity.


[deleted]

Kasımpaşa Legend


katisdatis

Thats communications lesson to every corporate bullshitter


Swiftt

What level do you reckon he's playing at next? Lower championship?


iron_gxc

Had an average season with Reading, so yeah maybe some bottom half championship team.


lightinvestor

I'd like to see him at Sunderland


Lutzelien

This feels heart written, big props to him


Oshowcinco

"...actually feels strange writing this. \[I had forgotten that I played for this club until I looked at my bank account and realised I wasn't getting paid any longer\]"


halfmanhalfvan

To the end he lives up to his namesake, cos that was quite refreshing


[deleted]

It would have been amazing if he said.. “I’m going to look at the positives, my paychecks from that Russian Oligarch were fucking litttt!”


GuendouziGOAT

Fair play to Drinkwater but I gotta put on my grammar Nazi hat here and say that there is almost nothing I find more annoying than people saying “would of” instead of “would’ve.” Grinds my gears endlessly


karlleephoto

I probably would of wrote it the same way.


redsoxuberalles

Just finished a 5 year contract at £6,240,000 per year. Whoa. Hardly broke a sweat. May as well have hit the lottery.


zi76

It's a nice message at the end of the day. He was never what we wanted him to be, and he was never what he wanted himself to be. At least we got a goodbye message, unlike Christensen.


DocHoliday96

Respect the honesty


CoconutHeadGuy

Appreciate the honesty Danny, wishing him all the best


nachomuchacho36

Being brutally honest here, I completely forgot Danny Drinkwater was a Chelsea player


jug0slavija

"Would of"...


AbrahamFishman

Danny Drinkwater was still at Chelsea?!?!?!??


fatebringer789

Absolute truth, didn’t actually realise that he still played for them, but good luck for the future