Chelsea have been made left to rue Frank Lampard’s call over centre-back Fikayo Tomori, who has helped inspire AC Milan to the Serie A title this season.
As Stefano Pioli’s side won the Scudetto for the first time in 11 years, Tomori, a product of the Blues’ academy, played 31 of Milan’s 38 Serie A matches in helping them claim a 19 th top-flight title and only their third in the 21 st century.
Tomori was playing his first full season at the San Siro this term alongside former Blues teammate Olivier Giroud, ex-Man Utd striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Chelsea loanee Tiemoue Bakayoko. The Canadian-born centre-back joined the club permanently for around £25m in the summer, having spent the second half of last season on loan there from Stamford Bridge.
Tomori had three loan spells away from Chelsea prior to his first-team promotion in 2019, representing Brighton and Hove Albion, Hull City and Derby County, with the latter coming under Frank Lampard at Pride Park.
Tomori and Mason Mount excelled for Derby in the 2018/19 season on loan, helping the Rams reach the Championship play-off final. When Lampard left Derby that summer to take the Chelsea job, Tomori and Mount were promoted straight into the first-team squad.
While Mount was and has remained a regular ever since, Tomori had spells in and out of the team under Lampard. He made 15 top-flight appearances in his first full season, but fell down the pecking order during the 2020/21 term and played just once in the Premier League, leading to the defender being sent out on loan.
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Last season, a report from The Athletic claimed that Lampard was worried about Tomori’s decline in performances that led to his exit, while publicly, the ex-Chelsea legend said that Tomori was allowed to leave short-term as he could not guarantee him minutes in January 2021.
"I don't think there's any 'when did it start to go wrong', Fikayo's a developing player. As a squad, we had four centre-backs last year, and you can't play four in one game," Lampard said in January 2021.
"And you try to find consistency at different times. At one point Fikayo was in that, and then later on not so much. And this year we have five centre-backs, so the predicament is difficult for centre-backs who are not playing regularly.”
Just three days after Tomori left on loan, Lampard was sacked and replaced by Thomas Tuchel. With Tomori impressing with the Rossoneri, they triggered the £25m buy clause after his loan spell and it appears to be another transfer mistake made by Chelsea.
On Tuesday, Tomori was called up to the England squad for their Nations League matches in June against Hungary, Germany and Italy. The defender currently has two caps to his name and it is his first call-up since last October.
Also in the England squad are ex-Chelsea academy products Tammy Abraham (Roma) and Marc Guehi ( Crystal Palace ). Abraham helped Roma reach the Europa League and the final of this season’s Europa Conference League during his debut campaign in Italy, while Guehi shone for the Eagles in his debut season as a senior player.
