Chelsea made the surprise move in January to recall Cesare Casadei from his loan spell at Leicester City.
Now, that decision from the club’s chiefs looks even stranger by the day!
Cesare Casadei has been cup tied for three of the six games since returning to Chelsea last month. As for opportunities in the Premier League, he’s made just the one late cameo appearance so far.
The 21-year-old midfielder was getting regular minutes in the first half of the season for Championship leaders Leicester City, albeit he was in and out of their starting line-up. He scored three goals in his 25 appearances for the Foxes.
We’re now really struggling to see where the Italian youngster gets much game time from now until the summer.
Speaking via the Daily Mail in January, Leicester manager Enzo Maresca admitted he was “surprised” when Chelsea decided to cut short Casadei’s loan and take him back to Stamford Bridge.
It seems so odd for Chelsea to have the exciting youngster mostly sitting on their bench for the second half of the campaign when he was contributing to Leicester’s promotion bid.
MORE CHELSEA STORIES
Blues head coach Mauricio Pochettino will get a closer look at the Italian box-to-box midfielder in training. Is that really better than playing under the pressure of a promotion fight at the King Power Stadium, though?
The Blues didn’t recall 20-year-old winger Omari Hutchinson from his loan at Ipswich Town. We put Casadei in a similar box to him, but it’s the latter’s progress that may have been paused.
Our guess is that he’ll only have to go out on loan again next season, so this has been a big mix up!
Cesare Casadei mistake
In our view, Chelsea have made a blunder by bringing Casadei back mid-season.
Now that more players are returning from injury, we’re seriously struggling to find his immediate path into the side. It doesn’t help he’s unavailable in both cup competitions, too!
We don’t see Casadei getting much of a sniff when his midfield rivals at Stamford Bridge are the likes of Conor Gallagher, Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo and Carney Chukwuemeka.
Chelsea’s fixture at home to Leeds United at the end of the month would have been a perfect window to play Casadei, but he’s ruled out of the FA Cup after featuring for Leicester earlier in the tournament.
