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Chelsea news: Jose Mourinho’s treatment of ONE player left them feeling ‘broken mentally’
NATHAN AKE says Jose Mourinho left him feeling broken mentally during his time at Chelsea.
The Dutchman was hopeful that he’d made his breakthrough into the Chelsea first team after a number of appearances under Rafael Benitez.
Now Newcastle boss, Benitez has shown throughout his career that he is willing to hand youth opportunities.
But when Jose Mourinho was reappointed manager of Chelsea in 2013, things changed significantly for the worst for Ake.
He was immediately demoted to the reserves, despite turning in a number of impressive performances alongside the likes of Gary Cahill and John Terry in cup competitions.
Now Ake is thriving at Bournemouth, after joining them for a fee of £20million in 2017.
After loan spells with Reading, Watford and the Cherries, Ake was recalled by Antonio Conte and played a small role in the second half of their 2016/17 title winning season.
For the first time since leaving the club, the 24-year-old has opened up on how he really felt about leaving the Blues.
He told The Telegraph: “I went to the first team at Chelsea and played under Rafa Benitez and I always thought, ‘why is everyone saying setbacks are coming because everything is going up, up, up?’
“The season after Benitez left I thought, ‘this is going to be my season’.
“Then Jose Mourinho came and, without training, I got dropped into the second team. That was one of the toughest things for me, mentally. I was quite broken.
“Everything was going great, I played a few games, I was young player of the year and then I was in the reserves again.”
His form over the past few seasons has seen Ake linked with a move back to Chelsea, while Manchester United and Tottenham are also rumoured to be interested.
Eddie Howe made it clear in January that he has no intentions of selling the defender.
“We love working with him, we think he’s got outstanding attributes, he’s getting better and better in his position,” Howe said.
“The speculation, as it has been all January, has been purely that – as with all our players.
“We’ve had not contact from any other club so it’s business as usual.”