Neil Warnock mad about Tammy Abraham’s Aston Villa loan

Neil Warnock claims to simply not understand why Chelsea refused to loan him Tammy Abraham this summer. The Cardiff City manager claims that he would’ve given all the minutes under the Sun to Tammy, probably while bathing him in honey and milk, too.

“I wanted Tammy Abraham from day one. I spoke to Eddie Newton (Chelsea’s loan player technical coach) about it, but he ended up at Aston Villa.”

“Tammy would have been my main man in the Premier League – surely that would have been better for him? I don’t understand it. Surely they would want him playing in the Premier League?”

His main man! But of course.

It’s unclear what Eddie Newton’s response may or may not have been, though we’d be remiss to point out that Eddie isn’t the one making the transfer decisions. It’s unclear if Warnock made any further moves beyond that — if he wanted Tammy that badly, surely he would’ve made a couple phone calls to the powers that be at Chelsea, no? Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t. Regardless, he now gets to blame Chelsea’s cold shoulder for his transfer market failings.

“I don’t think it was a question over the size of the loan fee - we would have paid it. I just the felt the way we played, he would have enjoyed it and had an impact. I missed out on a few players waiting for him too, which disappointed me. But that’s life.”

“I was really disappointed they didn’t even come back to me. I thought I at least deserved a phone call saying ‘sorry Neil, he’s not joining’.”

While Warnock seems to think this is all about him, he does reveal some critical thinking in figuring out why Tammy wasn’t going to join him in early August.

“It might have been because our deadline was three weeks before the Championship’s. Perhaps they weren’t sure at the time and then he ends up leaving at the end of the month, when only a move to a Championship club is possible. But even then, a phone call would have been better and shown a bit of class.”

-Neil Warnock; source: Evening Standard

Accusations of class aside, Warnock’s hit the nail on the head. At the time the Premier League transfer and loan window closed (August 9), Abraham was slated to be the third striker behind Morata and Giroud (with Batshuayi heading out on loan). Tammy later realized that this won’t get him too many minutes, so he chose to leave on loan on what used to be deadline day, but was now just the end of the loan window to lower division clubs (August 31).

While he’s already proven himself in the Championship, dropping back down a level after the disappointing spell at Swansea City is probably still better than experiencing similar struggles at similarly relegation-bound Cardiff City.

“Chelsea did say I would be involved with the team and the squad. So that’s why I said no to teams from abroad and Premier League loans as well.

“But towards the end, when I found out I needed to play games and play football, looking at a team like Aston Villa, which I believe should be in the Premier League, I think it’s a great chance to come out and showcase myself here.”

-Tammy Abraham; source: Aston Villa FC

Oh, and if you phone calls are not being returned, it means we’re just not that into you, Neil.