When you have a squad as big as Chelsea’s, not everyone is going to be happy. In fact when you have two full XIs in your squad, for every happy player there’s going to be at least one unhappy one.
As it stands, the unhappiest player at Chelsea is Christopher Nkunku. While some young kids are content to wait for their turn, the Frenchman arrived at the club expecting to be a star, and the fact he’s stuck on the bench can’t be pleasant. It should be no surprise we’re seeing transfer links connecting the former Leipzig man with moves away already.
On TalkSport’s Inside Chelsea show they discussed the Frenchman’s struggles:
“He must be incredibly frustrated, but right now I can’t make a case for him being in the team,” Jason Cundy admitted.
You can see the pundit speaking in the clip embedded here, with the questions about Nkunku coming after 25 minutes:
Nkunku’s prospects not good in either of his positions
Host Olivia Buzaglo went a step further, claiming that even Joao Felix is a preferred option for Enzo Maresca:
“It’s Cole Palmer, Joao Felix, then Christopher Nkunku [in the number 10 role],” she claimed after looking at the coach’s decisions in term of lineups and subs in recent games.
Matisse Hofer made the good point that Nkunku can never really be a Nicolas Jackson replacement up front because “physically, I don’t think Nkunku can do [what Jackson does],” leading the line and running the channels endlessly for 90 minutes.
So if Nkunku doesn’t fit at 9 and isn’t fancied at 10 – where does that leave his future? Not with Chelsea, we fear. Unless there’s a change of system or a serious injury, frustrations are only going to grow as the top tier talent spends more and more time on the bench.
