Chelsea’s forgotten man Florent Malouda says that he cannot wait to leave Stamford Bridge as he cannot wait to get back on the pitch and play.
The 32-year-old hasn’t featured in a single game for the Blues during the current campaign as he has been in exile and been made to train with the Under-21 squad.
Malouda hasn’t really spoken too much about his plight and has so far refused to speak ill of his employers but admits that he isn’t comfortable with the rumours that surround him and says he just wants to play football.
The French midfielder told Eurosport:
“I don’t have the right to play in matches but I put my boots on every day. And not only once a day!
“I have this capability to adapt which makes me successful at a high level.
“I am a very patient and a very determined person.
“What is difficult is when there are rumours: whether it be on my family, my intentions, things on the left, things on the right. But after a while everything goes back to normal.
“I am someone who expresses himself on the pitch and I cannot wait to go back [onto the pitch] to start expressing myself once again.”
I’m not entirely happy with his way of dealing with players and I think there are many fans that confuse Malouda’s situation and simply label the player as a greedy troublemaker that refuses to go away, like Winston Bogarde who was happy not to play as long as he was paid.
Malouda submitted a transfer request in the summer and a number of clubs were interested, including his form club Lyon and Brazilian Sao Paulo but Chelsea’s demands prevented any such deal from happening. Essentially the West London club were trying to hold a value against a player that they didn’t value themselves and wanted any buyer to pay Malouda’s contract off.
The likes of Sao Paulo would have been only too happy to do so but would not have been able to afford both the fee and the player’s wages and instead of being forced to drop his salary to a low level the Frenchman stayed put, why should he succumb to spite? In no walk of life would anyone let their employer simply tear up their contract and go on to earn much less elsewhere.
It seems odd that Chelsea didn’t allow Malouda to move on a free as they had done with Deco and get a few first-options on promising young Brazilian players. Basically Malouda has been put into the same situation as Nicolas Anelka and Alex had previously, only those two found clubs with enough cash to buy them out, it seems an odd way to deal with players if you ask me.
Malouda has won the Premier League, three FA Cups and a Champions League title during his time at Chelsea and performed best during Carlo Ancelotti’s reign at the club, especially during the double winning season.
bye bye.