CHELSEA defender Axel Disasi has revealed the reasoning behind his summer window snubbing of a loan move to West Ham.
The 27-year-old fell out of favour under Enzo Maresca following the Italian’s arrival from Leicester ahead of last season.
He spent the second half of last season on loan with Unai Emery’s Aston Villa after falling out of the manager’s plans in West London, and the expectation was that he would find himself a similar move in the summer.
The Frenchman ended up placed in Maresca’s ‘bomb squad’ of unwanted players, alongside stars such as Raheem Sterling, Ben Chilwell and Lesley Ugochukwu, among others.
While many of the names in the group got their moves, Disasi seemed to scuttle his own chances when he turned down late approaches from West Ham and Bournemouth for his services.
But now, in an interview with French outlet La Media Carre, the French international has opened up on the emotional reasoning behind the decision.
He said: “In the period between the approaches from Bournemouth and West Ham, Monaco arrived and that hit me emotionally.
“I had three incredible years at Monaco. When they came in, all the memories came back. Monaco is home.
“I hoped that Chelsea would find a solution to allow me to leave on loan. I pushed until the last minute to go to Monaco.”
He also referenced the last-minute loan move of his teammate Nicolas Jackson, who secured himself a spell with German champions Bayern Munich.
That deal suffered late complications and was close to falling apart after the injury of Liam Delap, but the recall of Marc Guiu from his loan with Sunderland allowed the deal to go ahead.
Not everyone deemed surplus to requirements at Chelsea was so lucky, with Sterling failing to get a move and now being stuck at Chelsea, separated from his first-team colleagues, while Disasi now also remains in limbo at the club.
West Ham may have missed out on Disasi, but were able to instead bring in Brighton’s Igor Julio at the last minute, despite reports that the Brazilian was set for a medical at Crystal Palace.
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