Former Celtic loanee Charly Musonda has revealed that he offered Chelsea his services for free in order to prolong his stay at the Stamford Bridge club. The Belgian youngster was a failed loanee at Celtic back in 2018 despite arriving with a degree of hype from Chelsea’s conveyor belt of talent. Brendan Rodgers sealed the signature of the highly-rated youngster on an 18-month loan but made just 8 appearances in what was a poor signing.
Speaking to The Beautiful Game podcast, Musonda – who will leave the club in the summer – said that he told Thomas Tuchel that he would be willing to play for free in order to seal a new deal at the Champions League holders.
“I spoke with the manager and I obviously knew what he thought of me in training.
“I explained to him the same thing, I will play here for free. It’s not to do with the contract, I will literally play for free this year.
“I can be the last guy in the squad. Train hard, basically build my way through training, pay with the 23s, get some fitness back and from there see.
“It’s a long season, there’s a lot of games. I’m not even asking to start those games, I was just saying, if I can come on, get 15, 20 minutes here and there.
“He understood. We had a good chat and he said, “Listen, it’s not up to me. The contract talks are something else’.”
Anyone that watched him would confirm that whilst he appeared talented, he seemed lightweight and as if his attitude was lacking. Rodgers clearly didn’t fancy him and apart from a cameo versus Hearts and an assist versus Zenit, he failed to really showcase why he should be a regular in the first team. Despite arriving and playing to the fans by taking the ’67’ number, Musonda’s arrival evoked much excitement but in reality, he left most fans very underwhelmed.
The trajectory of his career since he left Celtic is alarming due to an awful knee injury sustained in the Netherlands with one of Chelsea’s affiliate teams. At the time, there was a chance that Musonda might not have played again given the severity of the injury. Although, he was able to work away and complete his rehab and get himself back onto the pitch.
Hopefully, Musonda can get his career back on track from this injury and showcase his talents to the world away from the glare of Chelsea and with a team that are willing to help nurture the natural flair and talent that he appears to have in abundance.
I think that career ender scare might have made the lad grow up a bit, and become the player we thought we might be getting. Might be worth a punt for a Championship side, could work out a nice little earner for someone….