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Cometh the hour, cometh the man: it's time to talk to Ryan Bertrand, currently on loan at Aston Villa. What does he think the future holds?
I'll go back to Chelsea in the summer and if they want me to play then that would be great. Should it be other options, I suppose the ball is in their court.
It's something we'll sit down and talk about in the summer. At this stage in my career I need to be playing. I don't want to be sat on the bench next season, so that is something we will discuss in the summer.
For me personally I feel I'm more than ready. I deserve the chance to play there consistently, having had the experiences that I have done under numerous managers.
Source: Sky Sports.
The superficial way of reading that is of course that Ryan Bertrand is still hoping to succeed at Chelsea and blah blah blah, but it's virtually impossible not to read between the lines on this one. What Bertrand is actually saying is that he wants to be sold, because he feels good enough to play for a Premier League side and knows he won't get a chance at Chelsea. Which, in fairness, is entirely true.
It's also somewhat annoying -- if Bertrand was content to sit on the bench and back up Cesar Azpilicueta, we wouldn't have to worry about replacing Ashley Cole. But professional athletes rarely get to be professional athletes without a certain amount of ambition, and it's hard to blame Bertrand for wanting more playing time. In other words, expect him to be sold this summer, probably for a decent amount of money. He is Champions League winning Ryan Bertrand, after all.
Patrick van Aanholt, anyone?
