Former Chelsea boss, Frank Lampard has said he is surprised by the Premier League club's decision to sell so many of their academy graduates.
According to him, he did not want to let Fikayo Tomori leave during his first spell.
Lampard enjoyed a decent stint at Stamford Bridge between 2019 and 2021, before he was replaced by Thomas Tuchel.
The 45-year-old then returned as caretaker manager of Chelsea at the end of last season
When shown a graphic of all the youngsters who played under him and have now left the club, Lampard told Sky Sports' Monday Night Football:
"I think if you look across that list I'm slightly surprised by it.
"At that time I would have expected more players to stay longer. I think every player in there is a different story and sometimes you read between the lines.
"Fikayo Tomori I wanted to keep, but at the same time I had five centre-backs. He was in and out of the team and he got frustrated and he wanted to leave, that happens with young players.
"But within that I did think some of those players would stay, but we are in the modern world working with the ownerships of clubs and the sporting directors who are not seeing academy players with maybe what I saw and what fans saw."
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