‘This is a joke’ – Danny Drinkwater reveals moment he was told he had ONE HOUR to leave Chelsea

DANNY DRINKWATER has revealed he was given just ONE HOUR to leave Chelsea.

The former Blues midfielder has lifted the lid on his brutal Stamford Bridge exile, which came just a year after his shock £45million switch from Leicester.

Drinkwater was signed by Chelsea in 2017 following their title-winning campaign under Antonio Conte.

But a lack of form and several injuries saw him make just 12 Premier League appearances.

And when Maurizio Sarri took charge in 2018, Drinkwater began to fear the worst.

The Blues already had himself, Cesc Fabregas, N’Golo Kante and Ross Barkley on the books after Tiemoue Bakayoko was loaned out to AC Milan.

A young Ruben Loftus-Cheek was making waves in the academy too.

But Sarri’s arrival saw TWO more midfielders join, with Jorginho signing from Napoli and Mateo Kovacic coming from Real Madrid.

It saw club captain Cesar Azpilicueta initially warn Drinkwater that he may have to start searching for a new side.

The three-time England international told Rio Ferdinand’s podcast: “Looking back actually, I remember Azpi tried giving me the heads up about this when I was in that second season.

“So I was in there with Cesc on that Sarri first pre-season, so it would’ve been me and Cesc I think, Kova might have been there, and they were trying to bring Jorginho in.

“N’Golo was obviously there wasn’t he? So N’Golo, Cesc and me, I can’t remember if Kovacic was there at the time.

“But then Azpi’s like, ‘Drinks, if they bring Jorgi in, which they’re going to, they want to, you need to think about what you want to do here.'”

Despite the warning, Drinkwater ended up staying put at Stamford Bridge throughout the summer.

He even came off the bench in the 2-0 Community Shield defeat to Man City, suggesting he still had a future at Chelsea.

But on transfer deadline day, Drinkwater received the “joke” message he’d been fearing for several months.

The midfielder was summoned to Sarri’s office after training, where he was told he was not in the club’s first-team plans.

Sarri told Drinkwater that several teams wanted to sign him on loan, including one Italian side.

But Drinkwater, father to a young baby at the time, dismissed any exit talk with just ONE HOUR left in the window and insisted he’d take his chances as a fringe player.

He continued: “So Sarri’s English, again, when he came, wasn’t the best… That first window after that summer, it was like the last day of the window.

“My son was a year old here as well, so I’ve got stuff off the pitch that I’m focusing on as well.

“Zola came and saw me, and said, ‘Drinks, the gaffer would like to see you.’ So I was like, ‘Yeah, buzzing, sweet.’ Didn’t expect anything from it.

“I came up and he’s like, ‘I think you should go on loan.’ So I was like, ‘What? What time is it?’ I was like saying, ‘I’ve got an hour to get a club, what do you mean?’

“And he’s like, ‘No no, loads of like… I’ve got a Serie A team, loads of teams asking about you.’ [I’m] like, ‘Nah nah, I ain’t going out of England, are you mad?’

“Just had a baby, I’m a footballer but I’m a dad, I ain’t going anywhere. And he’s like, ‘Well, you might get frustrated.’ I was like, ‘Well, I’m going to get frustrated aren’t I? This is a joke.'”

Drinkwater’s decision to stay at Chelsea saw him fail to add to his Communiy Shield cameo for the entirety of the 2018/19 campaign.

The Premier League title winner eventually saw his career fade out with unsuccessful loans at Burnley, Aston Villa, Turkish side Kasimpasa and Reading.

Drinkwater then retired from football aged 33 in 2023 after failing to find a new side.

He’s since lost £782,000 after going into the restaurant business.

And last summer Drinkwater shared a photo of himself “grafting” on a building site.