Former Chelsea striker Timo Werner, who now plays for RB Leipzig has opened up on his time at Stamford Bridge.
Werner criticised Thomas Tuchel and singled out Romelu Lukaku as the reason for his failures at Chelsea. He has given an honest verdict on his two years in England.
The Germany international joined Chelsea ahead of the 2020/21 campaign. He initially started his spell with the club in fine form in front of goal.
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But Werner was never able to recover from his first real dip in the Premier League. Frank Lampard was sacked as Chelsea boss in January 2021 and Tuchel replaced the club’s legend.
Werner went on to play a key part in Chelsea winning the Champions League in his first season at the club. But he claims Tuchel forgot about the impact he had.
He told The Sun: “I had a very good first six months at Chelsea, which was what the supporters and club expected of me. I scored the goals and played good games.
“When you come from the kind of success I had in Germany or with Chelsea – playing nearly every game in the first season, winning the Champions League in 2021, scoring in the semi-final against Real Madrid, making a lot of goals.
“Then all this gets a little bit forgotten by the manager, it was not really fair. That was also a reason I had to move back to Leipzig, to get the enjoyment again.
“I didn’t feel that any more but you need it to be successful. In the end a manager likes some players more than others – it’s completely normal and you have to accept that. Maybe yes, in the end I just wanted out.”
Tuchel spent big on Lukaku in his first summer in charge of Chelsea, And that made Werner’s chances of regular action even harder and a year later he returned to Leipzig.
Werner says the arrival of Lukaku had a role in his displays. He added: “The biggest problem was he put a striker like Lukaku in front of me in the second season after I won the Champions League by nearly playing every game in the first squad.
“That was the toughest moment for me to get a player, a very good player, in front of me for €120million. Romelu was a big striker and had to play after costing so much and I didn’t feel honoured enough. Maybe that was also a reason why I had ups and downs.”
