Since Chelsea last played Bournemouth, they have started £20m summer signing Carney Chukwuemeka just twice. Those games both came nearly five months ago.
The 19-year-old has had his progression halted after appearing as one of the few positives over a dark winter period for the Blues. He almost opened his account in a 1-1 draw with Manchester United and also came close against Manchester City.
He built up a small run of league games at a time that injuries plagued Graham Potter's squad but looked settled in a team that was faltering. His energy, drive and decisive final third choices were a breath of fresh air in an otherwise dour team.
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He hasn't played for nearly two months, though. it's been over 130 days since he last got more than 15 minutes on the pitch and for the past five matches there has been no place even on the bench for him.
In a squad of 32, piled high with attacking talent and senior players, it can be hard to force his way in but having jumped straight from new signing to first team, it hasn't been the season he would have hoped for. football.london now understands that the club would be happy to loan him out if an appropriate offer came in.
That would still be down to how the new head coach, still expected to be Mauricio Pochettino, beds him in and views his position in the squad, but it shows where he has fallen to since just last summer. Steven Gerrard, who was managing Aston Villa at the time of the sale to Chelsea, had warned the England youth starlet of the risks of moving.
"Carney is yet to sign a contract offer that has been in place for some time now. I've decided the best thing for him would be to continue his training programme back at Bodymoor," Gerrard told Villa TV in pre-season after he was left out of the squad to tour Australia.
"We believe this is the right place for him. If anyone else thinks it's not, then I would like to sit in front of them and discuss it. We don’t see a problem. He's got 18 months left on his deal, we just need to let the kid play football," Gerrard said. Unfortunately, even with the move, Chukwuemeka has not played the amount of football either party would have wanted.
He was then sold in a big money deal for an 18-year-old at the time with Birmingham Live reporting that Gerrard didn't want his player to become an 'unnecessary distraction'. Despite the split, the Liverpool great still spoke well of Chukwuemeka. "I really enjoyed working with Carney, he’s obviously a big talent, someone who’s got big potential," Gerrard said.
"I think the Academy boys and when we came in, we worked ever so hard to work on his development and shape him, try and polish him up, so Chelsea are getting a big talent. We wish him well and we move forward. We’ve got a lot of talented players and we’re committed to trying to get as many through, committed to give pathways them to get first-team football.
"The door was open for a pathway for Carney, for sure, there was a lot of hard work and attention to try and get him signed up here, but I’m really happy I got the support from the owners, Christian and Johan, and we also needed to set a precedent that no-one is as big as the club or the Academy.
"And if someone isn’t committed or prepared to commit to the club, the supporters and the journey then we have to give them the opportunity to go somewhere else."
In the meantime, Jacob Ramsey has starred for Villa in a role that Chukwuemeka would have been competing for and is on the verge of an England call-up, meanwhile Chukwuemeka faces a battle to win over Frank Lampard if he is to play again this season.
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