I never should have joined Chelsea from Leicester - I wasted best years of my career

Chelsea travel to Leicester City at the weekend as the Premier League returns ahead of the winter period. The Blues make the trip to the East Midlands with a number of individuals returning to their former homes.

Wesley Fofana played 52 times for the Foxes, winning the FA Cup at Chelsea's expense, before forcing a move to Stamford Bridge in 2022. Defender Ben Chilwell graduated from the academy at Leicester and was sold for £50million.

More recently, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall took the step up from Leicester to join Chelsea and Cesare Casadei enjoyed a fine brief loan spell at the club in the Championship last season. Enzo Maresca also returns to Leicester after instantly bringing them back to the Premier League.

N'golo Kante also made the switch from Leicester to Chelsea. However, the curious case of Danny Drinkwater is one that is always looked upon with caution. After five years at the King Power Stadium, where he lifted the Championship and Premier League in the space of two years, Drinkwater moved to Chelsea.

The then-27-year-old cost just £35m after asking to leave Leicester. However, the move did not work out for Drinkwater, who was left on the sidelines for most of his time in the capital, as he made just 23 appearances.

He spent over two years on loan away from west London with Burnley, Aston Villa, Kasimpasa and Reading before leaving the Blues in 2022 upon the expiry of his contract. Since leaving the club, Drinkwater has often revealed his regret over the move.

READ MORE: I didn't want to leave Chelsea for Leicester City but two transfers left me with no choice

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Not long after leaving, he said in an interview with Sky Sports, he said: "I'm relieved, because it's clear it wasn't a situation that was good for me or the club," he explained. "I'm angry because of how it's gone and how I was treated - not bitter though, what ifs. It was a long time coming."

"Yeah, it feels like 'what have you thrown those five years away?' If you'd stayed at Leicester, if you didn't get injured and if the club treated you differently," he added. "They're all ifs. It's frustrating, 100 per cent. Don't think I'm still not burning about how it's gone. I still kick myself for it. But on the other side, am I going to keep kicking myself, because I can't change it.

"Can I help myself going forward? That's why I went on loan, why I went to Aston Villa and Burnley on loan, which didn't work, and going to Turkey at the age of 30 - I never thought I'd do that. It's also the reason I dropped down to the Championship. I've been trying to do the right things. As I've tried doing them, something's gone wrong."

In 2023, Drinkwater revealed how one particular incident at the end of his first season made him realise he'd made the wrong decision. "The finances were great but it was always about getting that top four club, regular Champions League," he said on The High Performance Podcast.

"As a whole, [the move was] garbage but I had some good times there. I had never met Conte before, I thought he was a genius, tactically better than anything else I've seen.

"The first season was tricky with injuries, but at the end of the season there was this one moment that disappointed me massively. I can't say too much about it but hopefully in the future...

"That summer, after that, I was like ‘I need to go, this isn’t for me, ‘it hasn’t really worked and then this has happened so I could really do with going’. I’d bought a big house to move all my family down, give a good go at it and I was ready to forget about it and go where I needed to.

“I was trying to leave that first window. I can’t say too much but it was to do with the club. My agent said ‘they’re not letting you go, they’re getting another manager in’. I think (people would understand my decline if they knew), it would make more sense.

“You can see the impact it had, I didn’t play a single minute the next season. I got stuck into London life, partying way more than usual. My focus wasn’t on football for the first time.”