• Premier League

Chelsea didn't treat me honestly, says Bertrand

Southampton's on-loan left-back Ryan Bertrand says he feels let down by Chelsea and opened up the possibility of a permanent move to Ronald Koeman's side.

Bertrand, 25, is in his ninth spell away from the club who hold his registration and is one of a remarkable 26 players farmed out on temporary contracts by Jose Mourinho's side across the globe this summer.

He has two England caps and appeared to have made a breakthrough at Chelsea during the 2012-13 campaign, when he made 38 appearances. Bertrand also featured in the Champions League final penalty shootout triumph over Bayern Munich the season before, but he has been a marginal figure at Stamford Bridge since Mourinho took charge.

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"The situation became clear to me before I went on loan to Aston Villa [last season]. I was getting those 15, 20, 25, 30-plus games a season, until I hit a stumbling block," he said in the Southampton matchday programme.

"That's when the alarm bells rang. Before that, I had a chance to move from the club, but I was advised that I didn't need to do that.

"It all unravelled in front of my eyes, and certain things didn't make sense in terms of what certain people had said to me. All I ask for is honesty, and I didn't get that."

Bertrand scored his first Southampton goal during Saturday's 2-1 home victory over Queens Park Rangers and has so far enjoyed his time at the south coast club, who sit in second place in the Premier League table, three points off leaders Chelsea.

It was widely expected that Southampton would struggle to live up to last season's high standards after losing a wealth of first-team players as well as coach Mauricio Pochettino in the summer. And Bertrand admits that he is surprised by how well things have gone during the early days of Koeman's tenure.

"I wanted to be in a situation where the club is looking for the same things. In a way, me as a person and Southampton as a football club are quite similar. We're both striving to do great things.

"It's strange just how positive it has been. It's almost hard to believe how well the new boys have settled in."

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