Villarreal CEO Fernando Roig Negueroles believes Filip Jorgensen was “hasty” in leaving the club for Chelsea earlier this summer.
Despite signing two goalkeepers last summer in Robert Sanchez and Djordje Petrovic, the Blues decided they needed to bring another keeper in and chose Jorgensen as their man.
Chelsea ended up paying around £21m for the 22-year-old, who is set to challenge Sanchez for the number one shirt this season.
Villarrel didn’t expect Jorgensen to leave so soon
The arrival of Jorgensen meant Petrovic, who impressed last season became surplus to requirements at the club, for this season anyway and the 24-year-old joined sister club Strasbourg on loan.
The Denmark under-21 international has clearly been signed because Chelsea feel he’s the right fit for Enzo Maresca’s style of football, which requires keepers to be very good with the ball at their feet and have good distribution.
So far Jorgensen has only started in the Europa Conference League for the Blues and will have to make the most of his opportunities and hope Sanchez’s form drops off if he’s to be given a chance in the Premier League.
Jorgensen performed well in La Liga last season, but despite that Villarreal’s CEO didn’t expect him to leave this summer and believes he was hasty in leaving for Chelsea.
“We didn’t expect to sell Jorgensen so soon, and even less so this year,” Roig Negueroles told Spanish publication AS.
“We knew of his enormous potential and we thought he would leave, but not now. Honestly, and I have made this clear to him and to those around him, I think Jorgensen was hasty. Here he had room for improvement and growth, but his departure was the player’s will.”
“We didn’t intend to make that sale, but it happened this way because he is a great goalkeeper for the present and the future and with qualities that can make him one of the most important goalkeepers in Europe. I don’t regret his departure, these are football situations.”