Leeds United goalkeeper, Illan Meslier has come out to talk about why he rejected Chelsea as a teenager. He recently revealed that he turned down the Blues simply because of the timing of their approach.
According to him, Chelsea agreed a fee with Lorient 24 hours before the end of the window, and that left it so late for him to make a decision.
He added that Chelsea also had a lot of goalkeepers in their academy at the time and this made it a difficult decision for him.
His words, “Chelsea agreed with Lorient and then asked me, ‘Are you ready?’,”
“But it was 24 hours before the end of the window.”
“I said, ‘No, it’s too late, man! If you’d come one or two weeks earlier then I might have said yes. I can’t sign for you so late’.”
“It was a difficult decision. Chelsea are a big club. You would ask me, ‘Why not [go]?’. But there are lots of keepers in Chelsea’s academy.”
“It’s very hard to grow up there and sometimes you sign and you have to go on loan, things like that. It’s better, I think, to work in your club and then sign to be a No 1 at 24, 25. Not at 18 years old.”
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