How tears and jeers changed to loud cheers
TAMMY ABRAHAM has revealed how he sat in tears inconsolable in the dressing room at the Vodafone Stadium in Istanbul convinced he had blown his chance of reaching the big time.
The Chelsea youngster had just missed the crucial penalty in the UEFA Super Cup final in August – and handed Liverpool a 5-4 shoot-out win after a gripping 2-2 draw and a brave battle by Frank Lampard’s youthful side.
But worse was to come as Abraham was subjected to racist abuse online, leaving his mother in tears. Supported by Lampard, he recovered, but the doubts about his ability at the highest level still haunted him.
In his only previous spell playing in the Premier League, on loan at Swansea in 2017-18, he scored only five goals in 31 games as the Welsh side were relegated.
Despite goals galore on loan in the Championship at Bristol City and Aston Villa, the worries were still there. Could he really make it at the top level?
Those doubts were only finally dispelled when Lampard picked him as his central striker – 10 days after the Istanbul nightmare – at Norwich and he scored his first Premier League goals for Chelsea, netting twice in a 3-2 win.
The mental shackles were at last off – and another 13 goals followed, as well as his first senior England goal. He admitted he had returned from Swansea thinking: “That’s my only chance and I didn’t take it. I lost a lot of confidence, I was beating myself up.”
Scoring 25 goals as Villa won promotion to the top flight restored self-belief, and Lampard handed him the No9 shirt at Chelsea.
But then came that horrible night in Turkey.
He said: “At Villa, I had only missed one penalty. But the pressure got to me. Afterwards everyone came round saying ‘don’t worry,’ but I wanted everyone to leave me alone, I was in tears. I lost confidence. I was doing well on my loans but when I came back to Chelsea, it just wasn’t working.
“I was getting abused on Twitter, a lot of racist comments, people saying I wasn’t good enough to be playing for Chelsea. It was the biggest down in anything I’ve done in football.”
But Lampard kept faith – and then came Carrow Road. But Abraham told chelseafc.com that if he had not scored, it could have been the end for him at elite level.
He said: “I knew if I didn’t score then it could be my last starting chance gone. When I scored, the emotions just got to me.
“From there, the confidence came back. The Chelsea fans started to believe in me. Being Chelsea’s No9, you’ve got big boots to fill. I need to believe that I’m the man.”