Alvaro Morata has revealed he did consider leaving Chelsea this summer after claiming his first season in English football was “a disaster”.
The 25-year-old joined from La Liga giants Real Madrid in the summer of 2017, and enjoyed a fruitful start to life at Stamford Bridge, but failed to capitalise on that form, and eventually found himself out of the side.
Three goals in the final 23 games of the season saw him miss out on Spain’s World Cup squad, too.
Despite the upset of missing out on the Worl Cup in Russia, Morata has found himself called up for Spain’s UEFA Nations League games against England and Croatia, but admits he did consider quitting Chelsea in favour of a move home, or to Italy.
“I thought about playing again in Spain or Italy, of course I thought it would have been happy, but you cannot always escape from reality,” he told the Spanish press.
“It was a disaster last year, I did not know where I was, I was not happy.
“Not going to the World Cup was hard for me. I did not have the best season and the coach made the decision.
“I signed for Chelsea to be there and I was not, although that ultimately made me motivated.
“I do not hold a grudge against (former Spain coach Julen) Lopetegui, I’ve lived a lot of nice things with him too, it was his opinion and I did not do my best season either.
“But I do not hold a grudge against anyone, I wish him all the best and more now that he is at Real Madrid.”