Lyon forward Bertrand Traore reveals reasoning behind Chelsea departure

Lyon forward Bertrand Traore says he left Chelsea for Les Gones in order to gain some stability in his career after growing frustrated with his indistinct role at Stamford Bridge.

Traore, 21, joined Lyon in a deal worth £8.8m ($11.2m) on Monday night (26 June) after failing to truly establish himself in west London and has spoken of his desire to be handed a 'leading role' with Bruno Genesio's men.

Traore threatened to break through at Chelsea during the 2015/16 campaign but was farmed out on loan to Ajax last season. The Burkina Faso international scored 13 goals in all competitions for the Dutch giants as they battled to the Europa League final.

Despite a fruitful spell in the Dutch capital, Traore did not want to be 'forced out' on loan by Chelsea again and has attempted to take on control of his career by signing for Lyon, the side he scored twice against for Ajax when the two sides met in the Europa League semi-finals.

"It was time to land in a more stable project, considering my age and my development, it was the moment for me to leave Chelsea," Traore was quoted as saying by The Daily Star. "I could stay and play games, knowing full well that a starting place was never going to come.

"I was trained at the club, I did everything, two seasons ago I even pushed the holders a bit, but we all saw what happened. I made a very good pre-season and finally I was forced to go on loan, I did not want to repeat the same scenario this season.

"It was time to look for stability in a club where I would play a leading role, where I would be a 'cadre' of the team, I think that here I can do everything to be among these sort of people."

Traore may not be the only player to leave Chelsea this week; Serbia international Nemanja Matic is close to completing a £40m move to Manchester United after failing to come to an agreement with the Blues over a new deal. Chelsea have already lined up the 28-year-old's replacement, with Monaco powerhouse Tiemoue Bakayoko expected to join for a fee of £36.7m in the coming days.