Chelsea forward Armando Broja has slammed his old manager Mauricio Pochettino for his lack of ‘trust’ and says he is open to leaving the club.
The West London side recently parted ways with Pochettino, a controversial call which football pundit Jamie Carragher described as ‘ridiculous’.
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It appears that Broja was happy to see the Argentine coach exit, though, after he saw opportunities limited and was publicly told to ‘change his body language’.
When asked for his reaction to Pochettino’s body language remark, Broja told The Athletic: ‘A little bit [surprising], because I have been through so much with the injury and he was saying something about me needing to be more happy.
‘I did feel like I could have had more trust and belief [from him]. I basically just got thrown into the Premier League straight away – which is tough to deal with anyway, but I had no build-up.
‘I have always been quite hard on myself because I expect a lot, but I have always had a really good attitude when it comes to training and games.
‘I always try to do my best for the team; try to win. I am not a player who sulks or whinges.
‘I did think when Nicolas Jackson went away with Senegal to the Africa Cup of Nations [at the start of 2024] that I would be given an opportunity to play a load of games.
‘I started three times in January, but I thought there were times I could have been utilised more. I got the feeling people expected me to just run past three, four players and put it in the bottom corner.
‘But I was fighting to get my fitness and things were going through my head like, ‘What will happen to me in January?’ – there was a lot of speculation around me at the time, whether I would go on loan.
‘I just wanted answers from the club, a bit of reassurance, and I didn’t get that. In the end, I decided to go on loan because I wanted to get more minutes.’
Broja is open to leaving Chelsea in the summer window but is keen to stress that nothing has been decided yet.
‘If I need to go somewhere else to get back in my groove, then of course I would want to do that,’ the 22-year-old added.
‘As a player, there is no better feeling than being on the pitch and knowing you have a club and a team who defends you; a club who allow you to make mistakes because they know you will become something. But right now, all my focus is on doing my best for Albania at the Euros.’
