$108m flop is playing his way out of Chelsea plans while his teammate plays his way in | OneFootball

Despite how it has felt at times this year, Chelsea have a lot of talented attacking players competing for minutes.

Cole Palmer wants to play on the right, Raheem Sterling is on massive wages and going nowhere. Nicolas Jackson has made the striker role his own (and looks even better on the left wing). Noni Madueke is finally finding his feet out wide. Christopher Nkunku should be a game changer when he’s back.

And all of that is before you consider the sensational talent we’ve got in the academy, or out on loan, or who could be bought this summer.

One person has been left out – Mykhailo Mudryk These last few weeks have not been kind to him. In almost the exact same fashion that Madueke took his run of games in the team and made it work for him, Mudryk has done the opposite.

Mauricio Pochettino escorts Mykhailo Mudryk off the pitch.

Two trains heading in opposite directions

With options limited due to injury in the rest of the team, the pair have started consistently out wide, each in their favoured role. While Madueke has taken a major leap forward, Mudryk made little of the opportunities, and his run of games has only served to convince most people further that he’s just not up to it – perhaps not now, perhaps not ever.

The team has clicked into gear and has finally been scoring. But in his run of 7 starts, Mudryk has one goal and a lot of long stretches of total ineffectiveness.

The amount of money invested in him makes it hard for the club to do anything other than keep trying, but under normal circumstances once feels he would be far from the first team, despite the occasional glimpse of his ability.

Ask yourself – if Mudryk had cost £10m rather than £100m, would he be in the team? Or would he be at Strasbourg on loan?