One Chelsea player has now admitted he was actually surprised he had the opportunity to feature in the latter stages of last season.
While injuries plagued the league from top to bottom, no team were hit worse than Chelsea in terms of first team players.
It got so bad to the point where they were unable to name a senior outfield player on the bench for the huge game against Tottenham in the final weeks of the campaign, seeing debutants such as Josh Acheampong come to the forefront.
It of course didn’t stop them doing the double against their rivals, although forced manager at the time Mauricio Pochettino to get creative.
Another player he called upon from the bench that day was Cesare Casadei, who was recalled from his loan in January to give the Blues more options in the middle of the park.
Cesare Casadei shocked at Chelsea gametime
He went on to make a number of appearances off the bench this season, something he admitted to the club website he was not expecting to happen.
He said: “They asked me if I was happy to come back and I said ‘yes’ straight away because to come back here to Chelsea was my target. My goal was to be able to be here, to train every day in the first team.
“I wasn’t really expecting the call – I was just doing my journey with Leicester and I was just trying to be focused on that and not think about other things. But when they called, I was really happy and really excited.”
Casadei’s prospects could be about to change for the better after it has become clear that former manager at Leicester, Enzo Maresca, is set to take over at Stamford Bridge.
The Italian boss has experience with his countryman already, and could well look to a familiar face when settling into life at Stamford Bridge, particularly during pre-season.
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