Alvaro Morata: Chelsea teammates lacked the faith to pass to me

Former Chelsea striker Alvaro Morata has admitted that he felt his former teammates lost confidence in him.

Morata, now at Atletico Madrid, spent 18 months at Chelsea having joined from Real Madrid in 2017 for a then-club record fee of £60m.

The Spaniard started life at Stamford Bridge well, scoring seven goals in his first eight games across all competitions including a hat-trick in just his sixth Premier League appearance.

Alvaro Morata’s stint at Chelsea: Five things to know…

• Alvaro Morata joined Chelsea in 2017 for £60m – a club-record fee at the time.
• The Spaniard scored seven goals in his first eight appearances across all competitions.
• But he managed just eight in the next 40 games.
• Morata eventually left Chelsea for Atletico Madrid on loan in January, making the move permanent in the summer.
• And the Spaniard believes former Chelsea teammates had lost faith in his abilities.

But Morata would add just eight goals in the following 40 games of 2017/18, leading Antonio Conte to rotate him with January 2018-signing Olivier Giroud. Conte’s successor Maurizio Sarri also experienced similar problems in getting goals out of Morata.

Across 24 games in all competitions under Sarri, Morata scored nine goals including a brace in a 2-0 FA Cup win over Nottingham Forest that would prove to be his final appearance for Chelsea.

The Spaniard was sent on loan to boyhood club Atletico Madrid until the end of the 2019/20 campaign, and the deal was made permanent in the summer though the move will be official in June.

Morata, who has since netted 15 goals in 48 games for Atletico Madrid, has recently earned a recall for the Spain squad.

And the 27-year-old has admitted he’d lost confidence while at Chelsea, believing his teammates lost faith in his abilities.

“I’m happy at Atleti, I’d stopped enjoying football and now I’m happy,” Morata told COPE and Radio MARCA.

“The people that work at the club, my teammates… but I didn’t believe in myself [at Chelsea].

“In England, I had the feeling that when I missed [a chance], my teammates were looking at me as if I wasn’t going to do anything good.

“If only I’d been able to mature before 20-22 years old, but I’d never faced such a limiting situation.

“I told my wife that we were going to go as far away as possible in January because I couldn’t deal with this pressure.

“Atleti came up, I had six or seven big offers, and Chelsea wanted me to stay, but I decided to do what I’d been looking to do for various summers.”

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Morata didn’t feel loved at Chelsea

This is not the first time Morata has spoken negatively on his time in London since leaving Chelsea on loan in January.

With his permanent move to Atletico yet to be confirmed in June, the Spanish striker revealed he did not feel appreciated by Chelsea or their fans – ultimately cutting all ties with the Premier League club.

“I had lost confidence in myself previously,” he said.

“I was very upset by the opinion of the people in England. I think they caught me in the middle of everything.

“I didn’t quite feel loved or appreciated by the club or the fans. I started very well at Chelsea, but an injury in the end leaves you a bit stuck.

“As bad as it was, I still scored 15 goals and won the FA Cup… but I was out of the World Cup, and for me that was the hardest thing that could happen to me in my life.

“I’ve dreamed of being able to play in a World Cup since I was 10 years old, and I chose Chelsea because I thought it would be the best club to later be able to play in the World Cup.”