Aston Villa saw a significant number of players move away from the Midlands club during the previous summer transfer window, with a mixture of permanent, loan and free deals taking place.
One deal that caught a lot of attention saw Villa sell their 18-year-old youth starlet, Carney Chukwuemeka, to fellow Premier League club Chelsea, in a deal worth a reported fee of around £20m.
This move was described as “cringe-worthy” by Tottenham Hotspur insider John Wenham.
During his time with Villa, the midfielder made 71 appearances for the club across their U18, U21 and senior sides, scoring 13 goals and providing 14 assists in the process.
Back in November, it was reported that the teenager was not interested in signing a new deal with Villa due to apparent frustrations over his lack of first-team opportunities.
Since arriving at Chelsea, where he is estimated to be pocketing a weekly wage of £85k-per-week, the youngster has yet to play a single minute of senior football and has only been involved in two of their six Premier League matchday squads.
In our view, if it was Chukwuemeka’s aim to leave Villa so he’d be getting regular senior football, it seems as though Chelsea may not have been the ideal destination for him.
With that in mind, it’s safe to say that Villa manager Steven Gerrard could well be having the last laugh over the situation, rather than forcing himself to select the player in his team in an effort to keep him at the club.
However, it’s still early days into his period at Chelsea and with the age he is, there’s a lot of time ahead of him to become a regular first-team player for Graham Potter’s side.
Although, as things stand, picking up around £20m for a player that had only made 16 senior appearances for the club is a fantastic bit of business from Villa.
Moving forward, the best thing Villa and Gerrard can do now is to forget about Chukwuemeka and instead focus on their current side and their upcoming young players that aren’t likely to kick up a fuss about not getting the playing time they think they are entitled to.
