Chelsea winger Noni Madueke is reportedly open to a transfer elsewhere during the January window.
Last January, Madueke was one of a number of players to make the switch to Stamford Bridge as co-owners Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital attempted to lay the foundations for the future.
The 21-year-old left PSV Eindhoven to sign a seven-and-a-half-year contract with Chelsea and the expectation was that he would receive regular game time.
Madueke made a positive impression in his 645 minutes of Premier League football during the second half of 2022-23, but he has seemingly been a victim of the change of approach and new arrivals under Mauricio Pochettino.
Just 119 minutes of football have been accumulated over six outings in the top flight in this campaign, with a further two appearances coming in the EFL Cup.
© Reuters
There have also been occasions when the England Under-21 international has suffered injury issues that have prevented him from featuring in the squad or struggling to build momentum.
Nevertheless, according to TEAMtalk, Madueke is interested in a change of scenery to kick-start his career.
The report suggests that a loan move is most likely if Chelsea gave the green light for Madueke to move to another club at the midway point of the campaign.
That may be dependent on whether Chelsea's injury situation eases in due course with Pochettino forced to name an inexperienced substitutes' bench against Manchester United on Wednesday night.
© Reuters
On the flip side, Cole Palmer, Raheem Sterling and Mykhaylo Mudryk are already ahead of Madueke in the pecking order and Christopher Nkunku is due to come back into contention later this month.
Since the start of his professional career, Madueke is yet to play more than 24 times in a single domestic league campaign, that coming with PSV in the Eredivisie in 2020-21.
Were Chelsea to accept that Madueke may benefit from regular game time at a different club, they may target his chances of featuring every week over the level of club or league.
A sale is realistically out of the question unless Chelsea are able to recoup the £29m that they shelled out in January.
Darren Plant
