Frank Lampard: Chelsea FC Made A Mistake Selling Daniel Sturridge

Former Chelsea FC midfielder Frank Lampard said in a press conference on the weekend that the club made a mistake selling striker Daniel Sturridge. Perhaps it is the fact that he is no longer a Chelsea player that allows to speak more candidly but Lampard is saying what many Chelsea fans believe. Since Sturridge left to Liverpool in January 2013 for a £12m fee he has scored 31 goals in 43 appearances for the Reds, a record far superior to any Chelsea player.

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Daniel Sturridge has since come out and said that he was misused at Chelsea in the 2012 season and was often played out wide instead of at center forward. To be fair to Andre Villas Boas and Roberto Di Matteo, there was a glut of strikers at the club with Didier Drogba, Nicolas Anelka, Fernando Torres, Romelu Lukaku, and even Salomon Kalou vying for minutes at the forward position. Anelka was shipped out to China in the middle of that season but Sturridge was still played out wide rather than his preferred position.

Frank Lampard on Daniel Sturridge’s time at Chelsea and move to Liverpool:

"“I’m really pleased for [Daniel] Sturridge because at Chelsea I think he was a bit frustrated. He felt he could have played more. He felt the position he was playing in was one he wasn’t quite happy with and it was good for him to move in the end. It was may not be good business for Chelsea. It looks bad, but you look back and you never know. Individually for him it was a good move. He has gone from strength to strength.I think he does get the credit he deserves now, but with what Luis Suarez does alongside him at Liverpool, maybe takes the edge of the praise. But for an English striker scoring as regularly as he has in the Premier League it has been amazing, and he is the sort of striker, the sort of attacking player, we have been crying out for with England. He is someone who can make something out of nothing as he did against Peru last week, so he has emerged and deserves to be on this stage.”Source: SkySports.com"

Daniel Sturridge has proven that he can be a top center forward and many pundits have been calling for him to start at striker for England in the World Cup. The ideal scenario would have been for Sturridge to fight for his place in the starting eleven at Chelsea but by that point he had already become disillusioned at Stamford Bridge. It was too late for the relationship to be fixed but the Chelsea brass should have gone to greater lengths to make him feel more welcome at the club.

Spending £30 million on a striker like Diego Costa may have been unnecessary if Sturridge was still banging in goals for the Blues. A partnership of Romelu Lukaku and Daniel Sturridge would have struck fear in to the hearts of defenses across Europe and would have come at a combined fee of less than £20 million pounds. Chelsea may one day have the world class striker they so strongly desire but it is a shame that they let a very good one walk away for such a low fee.

Here is a video compilation of all of Daniel Sturridge’s goals for Chelsea:

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