OPINION
When Chelsea signed Danny Drinkwater for an eye-watering sum of £34million from Leicester in the summer of 2017 eyebrows were raised.
True, Drinkwater had helped Leicester to win the Premier League in 15/16, but it was hard to see how he would fit in at Chelsea. And so it has proved. Drinkwater has made just 23 appearances for Chelsea since he arrived at Stamford Bridge, scoring just the one goal.
The last time he was spotted on the pitch was back at the beginning of March 2018, over a year ago. And since then Chelsea have paid him over £5million on a reported salary of £100,000 -a-week.
We thought that he would try to move on in the summer but Chelsea manager Sarri has revealed that Drinkwater was happy to stay and take the Chelsea money.
Talking ahead of the Europa league tie against Slavia Prague on Thursday, Sarri said that he told Drinkwater in August that he wouldn’t fit into his team, but that Drinkwater chose to stay regardless.
Sarri’s words were reported by Evening Standard journalist Simon Johnson on Wednesday.
#Sarri on #cfc midfielder Drinkwater – says he told him in August he wasn't suitable to his style of play and player still chose to stay. Wouldn't be drawn on his arrest for drink driving.
— Simon Johnson (@SJohnsonSport) April 10, 2019
The bad news for Chelsea is that Drinkwater is under contract until 2022 and if he decides to bed in and keep taking his cheques, that’s another £15million that the midfielder will pocket.
On a five-year contract, adding in the £34million fee, that will make his deal worth a total of over £60million, making him one of the most expensive mistakes in the club’s history.
You can’t blame Drinkwater, although he does seem to have given up on his career. The big issue is that we can’t see any other club wanting to pay him anywhere near that level of salary. Chelsea must try and look for a compromise that will get him off their books – letting him stagnate isn’t good for them and it’s not good for Drinkwater’s football. His bank balance will be good either way.