“It’s time for him to leave this club because i can no longer continue to endure lazy and unprofessional behaviours”- Chelsea Boss Pochettino has just reported this morning that “phenomenal”
When Chelsea said that Andrey Santos had come back from his loan to Nottingham Forest, it didn’t come as a surprise. The Brazilian playmaker was supposed to spend the season at the City Ground, but it looked like the move might end early for a while.
After joining on loan, Santos only played twice for Liverpool. His first game was in the Carabao Cup against Burnley, just a few days after the loan move. His second cameo was against Liverpool in October. Since then, the 19-year-old has only been in one main group for a game.
After being signed by the Blues almost a year ago, the youngster couldn’t join the team until he could get a work permit. Santos had plenty of opportunities to play football, though. He led Brazil to victory in the South American under-20 championship and scored the most goals of the tournament. He then went back on loan to Vasco da Gama and led the Brazil under-20 team to victory at the World Cup in the summer.
After his country lost in the quarterfinals, Santos quickly got involved at Chelsea under Mauricio Pochettino. During pre-season, the Blues manager took a big group to the United States. The defender was one of the players who stood out.
It looked like Santos might get a chance to play for the first team, and he was in Pochettino’s group for the season opener against Liverpool before the young star was sent to Forest. The Midlands team signed both Ibrahim Sangare and Nicolas Dominguez just a few days after Santos moved.
It’s clear that the loan didn’t work out, and now Santos needs to decide what to do next. It’s not even the midfielder’s squad number from the beginning of the season; Cole Palmer took it after he came in.
Chelsea can’t send any more players out because they already have Hakim Ziyech, Angelo Gabriel, Romelu Lukaku, Charlie Webster, David Datro Fofana, Kepa Arrizabalaga, and Gabriel Slonina on loan. There is still a chance to find a team in the United States that might be interested, but Santos’ position is still tough.
The Vasco da Gama product has been picked to play for Brazil in the pre-Olympic event as they try to make it to the Olympics in Paris this summer. In less than three weeks, the competition’s group stage will start, and if Brazil wins, they will stay there until February 11.
That, of course, makes it take longer to get used to a new team near the end of the season. At the end of any season, it can be hard for a player who is on loan because teams start to look for players who will stay with them next season.
So, Santos might stay in west London until the end of the season. There is, however, a lot of competition in the middle of the pitch, with Conor Gallagher, Moises Caicedo, and Enzo Fernandez all vying for a spot before the injured Lesley Ugochukwu and Romeo Lavia.
The Blues won’t have an easy choice in the coming weeks as they try to get Santos’s season back on track after it got off track. After a busy start to 2023, he could have used some rest, but there is no way to make his loan move look good.
Even though he can score goals, Santos is a good choice because he can really sit at the base of midfield and keep the ball moving. He showed this in the summer. As an outright defensive midfielder, only Ugochukwu really offers something like that. If the Frenchman is seen as a better chance as a loan at this time, Santos might stay.
