Ex-Lyon midfielder Michael Essien has revealed how he dealt with his transfer to Chelsea after the move was dragged for sometime
“I remember we went to South Korea for our preseason, it was then that Chelsea came in strongly with their offer and our President was playing his games”- Essien Told Simplycarol8 on Instagram
“Gerard will always come and talk to me, one day he came and said, look Michael, I know how badly you want to join the premiership, but please stay at Lyon and work with me
“But my mind was made up, I wanted to go to England
“In one of our preseason games against one Mexican clubs, I was furious and went in with a very bad tackle and got straight red card I was angry because I was not happy with all the transfer tussle, i tackle this guy very badly and got my matching orders I was angry because the President was playing those games at the time
“But in this I was still training with my teammates, trying to be professional though I was always angry, stopped even sharing laughter with my teammates
“With my attitude the coach was still very good with me I must say, although we worked together for a short time, he is one of my best coaches ever
“I remember in our last preseason game it was against Tottenham, I didn’t play two matches before, Gerard came to me and said Michael play this game for me and after I will help you secure your England move
I said ok coach, no problem at all, he was like my father at the time, I went into the game with the confidence of the coach and I played a good game, I was one of the best performers
“After the game he came to me and said Michael do you still want to go?
“With a big smile I reply yes I wan to go
“We return to Lyon from preseason and the whole sage was still dragging on and I told the club, am not going to play any official match until they resolve my future
“The coach and the President respected my decision, though I was training with the team but I didn’t play any official match
“And one day it just happened and the rest the day is history.”
The 37-year-old midfielder spend nine years at Stamford after joining from Lyon for £24.4m transfer fee which was a record for an African player and went on to win all major trophies available with Chelsea.
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