‘Of course, it’s difficult’ – Ben Chilwell opens up on being bombed out by Chelsea before Crystal Palace lifeline
BEN CHILWELL refused to let membership of Chelsea’s ‘bomb squad’ drag him down.
The defender was frozen out completely by boss Enzo Maresca this season but kept his head up high in order to secure a move away.
Full-back Chilwell is now on loan at Crystal Palace and one win away from Wembley in the FA Cup semi finals – a huge turnaround from the dark days in isolation at Stamford Bridge.
Chilwell said to ITV: “Between the start of the season and January I was training by myself a lot of the days.
“You’re not involved in the matchday squads and you kind of just wait for the opportunity when you’re going to go somewhere.
“If you go somewhere in January and you’re miles off the pace or you’ve not put the work in, the only person that’s losing out is you.
“Of course, it’s difficult. Training by yourself a lot for a number of months isn’t easy. But the only person that was going to lose out if I wasn’t ready was myself.
“So these past four or five months have given me an opportunity to mentally and physically just realign, refocus, reset. To go again.
“There were a lot of circumstances and things going on at Chelsea that weren’t in my control, which I completely respect.
“The things I could control was how I came into training every day and how I trained, whether by myself or with the group.
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“That’s just a reflection of myself and I wasn’t going to let myself down in those moments you can control you just control as best as you can.”
Maresca bluntly told Chilwell that he simply did not fit into his tactical plans. It was nothing personal but it will have hurt.
Chilwell, 28, is big on the mental side of professional sports and kept his chin up, finally bagging a loan move to Palace in January.
Whether or not a permanent deal is struck at the end of the season, there is no way back for him at Chelsea while Maresca is manager.
He held a Zoom call with Eagles boss Oliver Glasner about a temporary switch and knew straightaway he fancied moving to South London for a fresh start.
Chilwell has played five times at Wembley at club level. With only one win so far.
The Champions League winning left-back made his Palace debut as a sub in the FA Cup fourth round win over Doncaster Rovers. He has featured in the two rounds since.
The fifth round win over Millwall was overshadowed by serious injury to Palace striker Jean-Philippe Mateta, who needed 25 stitches to a cut ear after a collision with keeper Liam Roberts.
The Frenchman is declared fit to play at Fulham on Saturday and Chilwell says it is a huge boost both physically and mentally.
He said: “He’s the glue of the place. He’s the loudest one in the changing room. The loudest one around here. You need a few of those don’t you?
“You need those characters around the place always cracking jokes making people laugh. They’re the loudest ones when their team loses or their team wins.
“They’re the most important figures in the changing room, so it’s definitely noticeable when he’s not in the building. Having him back this weekend will be a massive boost.
“Before coming here I knew a lot of the players previously through the national team, through playing against them in the league. It seemed a pretty easy choice. I spoke to the manager also.
“We had a talk over Zoom and kind of agreed on lots of lots of different things. So I think with the manager and the people that I knew here previously It was a pretty easy decision to come.”