Chelsea send message to Aston Villa flop Danny Drinkwater

Former Aston Villa loanee Danny Drinkwater has been released by Chelsea ahead of the 2022/23 Premier League season following loan spells across England and Europe.

Drinkwater, 32, was signed on loan by Dean Smith in January 2020 in a bid to help secure safety for the club in their first season back within the top flight of English football, as Villa searched for reinforcements following an injury to John McGinn at the time.

The former Villa boss reportedly watched Drinkwater train with the first-team before confirming the signing of the midfielder on January 7 and swiftly handed him his Villa debut in the 6-1 defeat to Manchester City just five days after the signing was announced.

Drinkwater went on to make just four appearances in claret and blue, as Villa survived relegation and proceeded to push on within the Premier League in the coming seasons. The former Premier League champion then returned to Chelsea before being loaned out on two more occasions to Reading and Turkish side Kasımpaşa, where he made a total of 43 appearances across the two clubs.

Chelsea issued the following statement regarding the release of the former England international, which said: "Danny Drinkwater will leave the club this summer as his Chelsea contract expires at the end of June. He has been with the Blues since 2017.

"Drinkwater signed from Leicester, where he had won the Premier League title alongside N’Golo Kante, making his debut in a League Cup win over Everton and scoring his only Chelsea goal in our last match of 2017, as we thrashed Stoke City 5-0.

"In the second half of the 2017/18 season, Drinkwater featured in a 1-1 Champions League home draw with Barcelona and started the first four of our seven FA Cup ties en route to