Former Chelsea and Arsenal midfielder Emmanuel Petit has revealed his belief that the Blues will NOT regret selling David Luiz in the summer transfer window.
It came as a shock to all of us when Luiz’s transfer to Arsenal was confirmed, with Frank Lampard not giving any prior indicator that the Brazilian was not part of his plans going forward.
Lampard has fielded a centre-back pairing of Andreas Christensen and Kurt Zouma in the opening two games of the season, with Antonio Rudiger set to return and Fikayo Tomori also in the squad.
We had thought that Tomori would leave on loan, leaving us with four centre-backs, but the decision was made to part with Luiz. Despite the surprise of it, Petit believes we have made the right call.
The World Cup winner is quoted by the Mirror saying:
“The fact that David Luiz left the club the way he did tells me that Lampard told him he was not going to feature regularly in his team. Luiz is 32 years old, and Lampard knows what he’s like as a player and was fine with showing him the door – I don’t think that’s the issue here.
For me, it should have been done earlier and that’s the problem. I’m not very happy seeing players moving clubs when the competitions are starting, it just causes trouble. But for me, Lampard sent a clear message to Luiz by showing him the door, that he is not his priority, so I doubt he regrets his decision.”
We too believe that this will prove to be the right call, even if we have directly strengthened one of our rivals short-term. Lampard is looking at the bigger picture – which is a good thing!
