The ridiculous Cesare Casadei loan situation is one we’ve dealt with in these pages before.
A summary – unlike most of our loaned out players this season, Casadei was playing regularly for his temporary club, and growing into the season, earning his manager’s trust and getting more and more minutes as time went by.
Then in January, Chelsea unexpectedly recalled him. They’ve since used him for a grand total of 17 minutes.
Manager Mauricio Pochettino claimed this was to help his squad depth in midfield – although if he’s only getting 5 minutes every 3rd game, you’d think a youth player could have filled that role.
Even more puzzlingly, Simon Johnson’s piece in the Athletic today claims that sources at Chelsea have said they were “unhappy with the minutes he was securing [Leicester].”
Well if they were unhappy with his 25 appearances and 1111 minutes in the Championship, how must they feel about his 3 appearances and 17 minutes since January?
He also can’t play in the FA Cup because he’s cup tied, and there are just 10 Premier League games left. At this rate he’ll play another 17 minutes before the campaign ends.
How on earth did we manage to blow up one of our few successful loans deliberately?