Chelsea fans should fear the worst over potential star if things don’t change soon says pundit | OneFootball

Ben Jacobs was on the London is Blue podcast over the weekend with a lot to talk about regarding the Club World Cup.

Top of the list was Andrey Santos. He was tipped as a potential breakout star of this tournament, and so far he’ played precisely zero minutes.

Like the rest of us, Jacobs expects this to be doing down very badly with the midfielder and his entourage.

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Andrey Santos will not be happy with lack of attention from Chelsea

Andrey Santos in preseason training. (Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC)

“What I would say is we are going to hear a lot of noise from Andrey Santos camp if he’s not getting the minutes,” Jacobs said.

“I think Santos is not seeing himself as the Number 2 in his head to anyone. He’s seeing himself as someone, if he gets the chance, to stay in the side. Is there a scenario where he leaves the Club World Cup, has barely played any minutes and feels very doubtful of his Chelsea pathway? [Yes.]

“Obviously, Chelsea have all the cards. They may say ‘no, we want to keep him, we want him to be patient,’ but I think Santos definitely feels, after the season he had at Strasbourg, that he’s ready for Chelsea minutes.”

You can see Jacobs speaking in the clip embedded here:

Chelsea appear to be forcing star player towards the exit

That makes total sense, but that’s also exactly why we’re worried. Chelsea know that Santos expects to be in first team contention, and given that, the fact they’ve not handed him a minute makes it seem like they’re deliberately trying to force him out, as much as anything.

We hope that’s rectified on Tuesday night against ES Tunis – but then again we said that before Friday’s match against Flamengo and Santos didn’t even get a chance off the bench.

Fingers crossed – but this is heading in the wrong direction for sure.