Charly Musonda has confirmed his departure from Chelsea ahead of the upcoming transfer window with a heartfelt farewell message on Instagram. He will become a free agent in the coming weeks once his current contract with the west Londoners expires.
The 25-year-old forward featured just seven times for the Blues first-team since joining from Anderlecht 10 years ago. Musonda, who was often likened to Eden Hazard in his formative years at Cobham, saw his promising career slip away due to a series of heartbreaking injuries.
And, like many burgeoning talents before him at Chelsea, there wasn't a pathway created for the Belgian to blossom. He did make seven appearances during the 2017/18 campaign after an 18-month loan spell at Real Betis but then was sent to Celtic and Vitesse.
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It was during pre-season with the latter that Musonda suffered an injury that would reshape his career. He tore his posterior cruciate ligament in a friendly against Antwerp and would make only one appearance during the 2018/19 campaign.
Unfortunately, he managed just three further substitute appearances before the decision was taken to undergo surgery again. And, Musonda's last competitive senior appearance came in August 2019 while on loan at Vitesse in the Eredivisie.
The Belgian took part in the early stages of first-team pre-season training last year under Thomas Tuchel's stewardship. Musonda has since featured just twice for the Chelsea development squad as part of his return to full fitness - both of which came before the turn of the new year.
So, with the curtain drawn on his Chelsea career, Musonda's statement read: "A decade gone, a rollercoaster of emotions. Four years without football, free agent. What next? Football always & creating an inspirational world.
"Seems like yesterday I was arriving at Cobham, and that Chelsea Football Club welcomed me and my family to my new home, it has now been ten years since that day, and today as the season ends, that journey has come to an end."
With Musonda's departure confirmed, Tuchel is set to lose a forward from his armoury. Speaking on areas of improvement the Blues need to nurse next season, the German boss said: "If we stick to the group then we will try to solve it with these players. Is it necessary to bring more offensive players around the box to create more distractions, to create more space for each other? We will ask that question.
"Can we do better in the structure? Can we push the players more? Did we rotate too much? Let’s see. There are a lot of options. The numbers we produce from our offensive players don’t allow us to overperform and we need overperformance if we want to be nearer to the top two teams.
"I am not pointing fingers, I am not blaming anybody, but we need overperformance from everybody. It’s not overperformance if we have only single figures in scoring and assisting."
