Patrick Bamford made an extraordinary announcement last night that he was ending his loan spell at Crystal Palace.
The 22-year-old striker suggested that he was returning to Chelsea midway through his season-long loan arrangement after getting frustrated with lack of opportunities at Selhurst Park.
Bamford, last season’s Championship player of the year, has made only six appearances from the bench for the Eagles this season.
He missed a golden opportunity to score against Swansea on Monday night, when he shot straight at Lukasz Fabianski after the ball fell to him in the penalty area.
“This was my last game for Palace,” said Bamford as quoted by The Times. “If I am being honest, it has been terrible. No one wants to sit on the bench and not play.”
“It was my decision. The coaches have just found out – I have told them I am going. The gaffer hasn’t actually spoken to me. I will go and say bye now. But I think it will be fine. Shake hands and say it didn’t work. No hard feelings.”
“There were a few reasons for not playing, but U kind of saw through them. I was frustrated because there weren’t many strikers scoring. After New Year I go back to Chelsea. It is up to me to work hard and see what happens I know I can fit in at this level.”
Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew insisted that he had no conversations with Chelsea about Bamford’s future.
“Strikers will always tell you they need five games,” said Pardew of Bamford’s form, as quoted by The Mirror.
“Managers ain’t got time for five games. You’ve got to come in and do it. But that chance was normally one he would take.
“Patrick nine times out of 10 would have buried that and we’d have got three points. But I can’t be disappointed.
It has been a frustrating loan spell for Bamford, who has only played a total of 119 minutes of football in the Premier League for Palace. Expectations were high from him, after he scored 19 times while on loan at Middlesbrough last season.
Bamford said that lack of opportunities was the central reason behind his decision to cancel his loan spell. Ideally he wants to play for Chelsea, but would welcome a loan move again to any other Premier League club this season.
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