LOAN RANGER
Lucas Piazon blasts Chelsea for loaning him out SEVEN times in nine years and says he ‘never had chance’ to impress
LUCAS PIAZON has blasted Chelsea for loaning out him SEVEN times in nine years.
The Brazilian winger joined the Blues in 2011 from Sao Paulo for a fee reported to be worth around £10million.
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But Piazon only ever made three senior appearances for Chelsea, all coming in 2012.
And what followed was a never-ending journey as one of their infamous loanees, bouncing from club to club while never being given a second chance at Stamford Bridge.
Piazon took in loans at Malaga, Vitesse Arnhem, Eintracht Frankfurt, Reading, Fulham, Chievo and Rio Ave before being recalled by Chelsea this month.
But with just six months left on his deal, Piazon was only being brought back in order to sell him to Braga on a four-and-a-half year deal.
Piazon is ecstatic to finally be with a long-term club at the age of 27.
But he has lashed out at Chelsea’s handling of his development and questioned why he was constantly bandied around Europe for nearly a decade.
Piazon told : “When I turned 18, I was on the bench for the first time under Andre Villas-Boas and then the season finished.
“And then it wasn’t him anymore, it was Roberto Di Matteo.
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“He kept me in the first team and I was with them every day. I played twice in September and once in December, and then it wasn’t Di Matteo anymore but Rafa Benitez.
“Then I went on loan and when I came back, Benitez wasn’t there. It was Jose Mourinho so it wasn’t very easy to get a chance.
“We [the loanees] would come back and go to pre-season with the new coach, and new players were coming in from the summer.
“They were always like, ‘if you do well the coach might keep you’. But deep down inside we knew we didn’t have a chance because they were paying big money for the players and the club would definitely use them.
“We knew that we would be there for three, four or five weeks and they would then try to send us on loan again.
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“In the beginning I felt Chelsea really wanted me and really wanted me to do well and come back.
“But after the third or fourth loan, I knew it was just maybe business.
“Like ‘you go into the world and someone will buy you and you’ll be happy - you’re not going to play here anymore’.
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“[At different clubs] it’s always a big change and it takes time. You have to be patient but when you’re on loan there’s none.
“The pressure on you to perform is huge because you are from Chelsea.”
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