Bournemouth Star Hits Back at Antonio Conte Claims About Youngsters' Lack of Patience at Chelsea
Nathan Ake has responded to former manager Antonio Conte's claims that young players don't have patience, and insisted he joined Bournemouth in order to play regular first team football.
The 22-year-old spent the first half of the 2016/17 campaign on loan at the Vitality Stadium before his parent club recalled him in January, as they stormed to the Premier League title.
Chelsea are frequently derided for their unwillingness to give youngsters a chance at Stamford Bridge in the first team, but manager Antonio Conte claimed that players working their way up from the academy need to have more 'patience'.
Dan Istitene/GettyImages
Conte said, as quoted by the Mail: "Sometimes I think the young players lose their patience very quickly. A lot of the time because of parents or the people around them. I think the advisers aren't right.
"The first thing they should have is good patience. Trust the club. Then work very hard to know that to play at this level you must be stronger - and very good. Sometimes, young players think they can play easily in the first team, but that's not true. I have to pick 11 players. Not only me, every coach."
BEN STANSALL/GettyImages
Ake has now responded to his former manager's comments, insisting that his decision to leave Chelsea was motivated by a chance for regular game time.
"The decision to come here was to be able to play more games which is important for me and that is why I came here," he said.
"It is a short career, I’m 22 now and I feel like I have had a good experience playing games and you just want to continue doing that. I understand what [Conte] said but I think we also know that Chelsea is a big club and for myself it was going to be difficult to come in and play straight away."
Ake is one of a number of young players to have left Chelsea this summer - with Dominic Solanke and Nathaniel Chalobah leaving for Liverpool and Watford respectively, while Ruben Loftus-Cheek joined Crystal Palace on l.
