Chelsea need a midfield Acheampong to make up for £60m signing’s endless issues

Romeo Lavia is going to return to action soon – at least that’s what we hear.

After his first season was basically a washout, the Belgian midfielder had effectively a 5 month preseason. He couldn’t have been better prepared physically for this campaign – and yet has still spent most of it out injured, or recovering from injury.

We won’t write him off totally yet as a perma-crock – anyone can have bad luck or a bad spell. We’ve seen plenty of players go through a couple of difficult years with injury and then have a normal career afterwards. But as we pass the 18 month mark of constant issues, it’s time to think long term about our central midfield.

Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo are playing game after game at the moment, with very little rest. The way the squad was built really left a hole there, presumably hoping that Lavia would be fit all year. Lesley Ugochukwu and Andrey Santos were among those farmed out on loan who would be playing a decent amount now if they were here.

Cesare Casadei, Carney Chukwuemeka and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall are all in and around the squad, but none are trusted to play as a deep lying midfielder in the Premier League by Enzo Maresca.

Midfield Acheampong needed

While Josh Acheampong has emerged from the youth team as a right back and now a centre back, there’s been no equivalent youngster in midfield considered PL ready by Maresca – perhaps because it’s such a demanding position, or perhaps there’s just not an Acheampong-level talent in that age group.

Someone like Sam Rak-Sakyi has played in the Conference League, but still feels far away from being trusted in the league. Perhaps another strong showing against Morecambe in the FA Cup could start to convince Maresca that he’s worthy of league minutes when Lavia gets his inevitable next injury.