Lucas Piazon definitely done with Chelsea, just like last time or the time before that

Lucas Piazon has been wanting to quit the Chelsea Loan Army for quite some time now, going as far back as 2014 when he was on loan at Eintracht Frankfurt. but despite repeatedly stating his intentions to do so, he’s yet to actually follow through.

It was no different this summer, when he not only headed out on loan once again, the seventh of his “Chelsea” career, he also agreed a new contract extension, one year longer than the two-year stay he’s set for at Rio Ave in the Portuguese Primeira Liga. Granted, the extension may have been a condition set by Chelsea to protect our “investment”, it does show that despite his idealisms and complaints, Piazon is pragmatic enough to not cut himself off from the Chelsea gravy-train.

In any case, now that he’s settled in Vila do Conde, he’s ready to begin the latest campaign to earn his discharge from the Loan Army.

“I’ve been at Chelsea since 2011, I’ve been on loan almost all over Europe. I’m tired of playing here and there, I need a place where I can feel at home. I want to know that in July I will return to the same place, to the same house. Being moving all the time is very complicated.”

Given that his stay at Rio Ave is set to be for at least two seasons, he’s at least gotten that wish fulfilled in part. Of course, that won’t erase the frustration of the past seven years, which got him a tour of Europe, just never in a Chelsea shirt.

“I’d have a good season on loan, but I’d come back and was soon loaned again. There was no point in going out on loan, playing well, coming back, not being used and being loaned again. There comes a time in your career that makes no sense anymore. By the way, I said exactly that three years ago and it didn’t go so well at Chelsea, it generated some discomfort.”

It’s hard to argue that Piazon’s career has unfolded as he or we might have imagined when he arrived as the “next Kaká” in 2011, especially after he excelled in the youth team and even made his first-team debut in 2012-13, but despite those trials, tribulations, and disappointments, Piazon himself understands that the situation was always complicated one.

“Playing at Chelsea is hard. In addition to the big players who are often signed, there’s also the pressure to put the younger and best players from the academy, which is no longer my case. It didn’t make much sense for the club to get me playing, especially at a time when they made €100m signings and also had a lot of house talent coming up.”

“My time at Chelsea is over. I’m 25, I’ve been on loan several times.”

Piazon had hoped to turn his temporary stays into more permanent ones at Eintracht Frankfurt, Reading, Fulham, and Chievo as well. Perhaps this time his wish will come true.

“My idea, actually, was to leave Chelsea for good, but that didn’t happen. Football changes a lot overnight, but today, in the face of all this, I think [Chelsea are] a page turned.”

“I can’t just blame Chelsea, because I also accepted all that. But of course, there came a time when I thought that being loaned again would no longer be necessary, I had to go on with my life.”

-Lucas Piazon; source: A Bola via Sport Witness

Good luck!