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Kalidou Koulibaly knows his “time will come” under Graham Potter at Chelsea, while the centre-back admitted he misses his former club Napoli despite choosing to leave.
The Senegal international ended an eight-year stay in Naples as he moved to Stamford Bridge in July for a reported £33.8million (€40m), signing a four-year contract with the Premier League side.
Thomas Tuchel, backed heavily in the transfer market by new owner Todd Boehly, was the man to sign Koulibaly before the Chelsea chairman dismissed the German and brought in Potter.
Koulibaly has been overlooked for the first two games of Potter’s tenure, but the 31-year-old remains confident he will soon get his chance.
“It’s true I haven’t played yet with the new manager, but I’m easy, I know my time will come,” Koulibaly told reporters.
“We have a lot of games and I will give everything in training. I am a big worker and when I don’t play, I like to put all my energy into my work.
“At the moment, I am working good and trying to give my best in training to show him he can use me on the pitch and play my first game for him.”
While the former Napoli defender remains patient for his chance to impress, Koulibaly acknowledged he misses life in Italy.
“I expected this. It is hard to move eight years of my life to come to London. I know that I have reached a big club, one of the best clubs in the world, so everything is hard,” he continued.
“I do miss Napoli and Naples but it was my choice. I wanted to come here to London, I wanted to come and join this club, one of the best in the world.
“We knew it would be difficult, everybody says so. Even some of the best coaches in the world said so because everyone knows that to go from Italy to England is difficult.
“But I was ready to take on this challenge. At the moment, we are going through a process that is normal and I am working very hard. I like it here and I’m very happy to be there.
“But we all have to work. I think my time will come. I am easy, I know that it’s a normal process. So I have to keep on working, stay passionate and my time will come.”
Koulibaly will hope to get a chance in Potter’s starting XI when Chelsea host Milan on Wednesday, the Blues aiming for their first win at their third attempt in Champions League Group E.
“I think today the most important thing is that Chelsea have to win the game tomorrow because I know we didn’t start well in the Champions League with a defeat and draw,” he added.
“I am not worried about anything, I just want Chelsea to win the games as we did at the weekend.
“We showed a lot of good things this weekend and I am really happy for the team and everybody because we have a good team spirit and it’s difficult when you change a manager.
“But you see this team is going up and up and I hope that tomorrow we will show a lot of good things to win the game.”
