Fikayo Tomori believes turning down a loan move to West Ham was the best decision for the sake of his career and he is now fully focused on earning a regular place in the Chelsea side.
The Hammers had agreed a deal with Chelsea to sign Tomori on a season-long loan on transfer deadline day earlier this month.
However, the 22-year-old pulled out of the deal shortly before the window closed, choosing instead to fight for his place in west London.
Tomori admits he had wrestled with the idea of leaving Stamford Bridge, but is confident he has made the right decision to stay.
"I had a plan going into this season going off the back of last season," he told the Chelsea Mike’d Up podcast. "Obviously, in football, things change so quickly so I wanted to make sure whatever decision I made was really thought out and to try and do what’s best for me.
“I made the decision in the end to stay, to improve more, get some more games, gain some more experience and try and get to the levels I was at last season.”
Despite being willing to let Tomori move to east London, Chelsea’s stance had been different earlier in the window, having previously rejected offers from Rennes and Everton for the defender.
Tomori admits the uncertainty was frustrating, particularly as the West Ham deal eventually arrived so late.
“I wanted everything to be thought out and I thought about what was happening, especially when we had a few weeks off leading up to the new season,” he added.
“I was talking a lot with my agent, to get some clarity what was going on. With transfers I prefer if it wasn’t last minute, but situations happen where you have to take a decision quickly.
“It was one of those situations and, as you all know, I made a decision to stay.”
Tomori faces intense competition for a first-team place at Stamford Bridge, with Kurt Zouma, Andreas Christensen, Thiago Silva, Antonio Rudiger and Cesar Azpilicueta among the centre-back options available for boss Lampard.
However, it is a challenge the England international relishes and one he thinks his manager will, too.
“He [Lampard] knows there is a big squad here and its more competitive than last year,” he said.
“We’ve brought in some amazing players and I’m sure the manager is looking forward to working with every single player, to get us to gel as much as we can, try and get some results on the board and close that gap to the top of the table.”