Timo Werner on what went wrong with him and Lukaku | OneFootball

Since Timo Werner’s departure from Chelsea was a permanent deal and not a loan, he’s able to speak very freely about his time at the club. Unlike Romelu Lukaku, who has the spectre of a return hanging over him.

So listening to Werner’s take on his spell at Chelsea is interesting, especially while it’s so fresh in his mind. His quotes from yesterday in the German media were picked up by SportWitness, who translated them thus:

“The first season was viewed too critically. From the outside, but also from myself. The first season created a restlessness in myself that was unnecessary,” the Germany international said.

“We had won the Champions League, I was top scorer, we reached the Champions League again after a difficult season. In the end, everything was good!

“The fact that people still saw me so critically, even though I was top scorer, broke an Eden Hazard record – this negative response after a relatively good season annoyed me.

“Especially since Romelu Lukaku was signed for the next season and put in front of me.

It’s hard to disagree with a lot of that. There was certainly plenty of unfair treatment of Werner.

On the other hand, as he would admit, he made his own mistakes on his part too. As he says, his reaction to Romelu Lukaku’s arrival was to feel put out, when he should have been thinking about working together with the Belgian:

“I didn’t realise until later that I was far too negative about the signing. My perspective was wrong. I asked myself why he was put in front of me. Why is he coming now? The plan was for me to storm together with him.

“So mentally I was in a one-way street: if I had seen the big picture behind it, it would have been less bad. Now I have a different perspective on things.

“I have expanded my footballing repertoire and become more mature. We played extremely possession-oriented football at Chelsea under Thomas Tuchel. I became a better player in England.”

Werner will surely be much happier back in the Bundesliga.