Bertrand: I should be Chelsea's first-choice left-back

The Saints full-back struggled to cement his place in the Blues' first-team during his nine-year stay at Stamford Bridge but insists he is good enough to play for the champions.Ryan Bertrand claims that he should be Chelsea’s first-choice left-back, but insists that he is fantastically happy at Southampton.The 25-year-old left Stamford Bridge to join the Saints in 2014, initially on loan, before later making the move permanent in a £10 million deal earlier this year.Bertrand spent nine years with the Blues but made just 57 appearances for the club and he maintains that he should currently be in Jose Mourinho’s first-team, but admits his transfer to the Saints has given him the freedom to develop as a player.
I know I should still be at Chelsea and I should still be playing but it is no drama," he is quoted as saying by the Daily Mirror.That’s my inner confidence. It’s nothing to do with my capabilities that I’m not there, it’s purely circumstance.Now I play at Southampton I really feel like a footballer. When the team wins and you are playing consistently, you feel good about it. You get a day off and feel like you deserved a day off.Every time you played it felt like you were having an audition. Playing regularly, you can be really aggressive in what you do and try new things.I am playing week in week out and developing as a footballer.Bertrand has also explained the rationale behind his departure from the Blues, maintaining that he made the move to bring some stability to both himself and his family.It has been massive for me. Every summer I would come back and ask ‘am I going, am I staying? After all the loans you get to the age where you need consistency, not only for yourself but your family," he added.You’re getting dragged around the country, left right and centre and there comes a time where it’s not, Right, I’m not doing it anymore, I need a comfort zone’ - you just need that base where you can develop your game and put your stamp on games.