£19m attacker already looks the new Lavia as latest news shows depressing January plan | OneFootball

Chelsea’s summer of 2024 is starting to look like a disaster in terms of transfers. And there’s no move more disastrous so far than the bizarre £19m signing of Omari Kellyman.

The promising teenager was brought in from Aston Villa at about twice the value expected, and has since managed precisely 0 minutes for the first team. After a couple of cameos with the Development Squad he picked up a hamstring injury, and has not been seen since.

The plan, as outlined more than a month ago, and originally mentioned way back in September was to loan him out this month. But with a week of the window left, that’s looking less and less likely. He doesn’t even appear to be in first team training yet, from what we’ve seen.

Crocked attacker following in nightmare pattern of Romeo Lavia

Omari Kellyman features in the warmup for Chelsea.

Football.London’s report on the matter claims that he’s expected to stay put for the rest of the season, and we can understand why. Who is going to take a teenager on loan who has managed 0 appearances this season? Especially one who has a grand total of 2 career Premier League appearances.

As it stands, it appears the plan is just to keep him at Cobham and allow him to start afresh in the summer. A judicious use of £19m, then.

The whole nightmare is awfully reminiscent of Romeo Lavia’s situation, after the Belgian signed in the summer of 2023 and then missed his entire debut campaign with various medical issues. Lavia has followed that up with another desperately patchy campaign, and already looks like a disaster signing barring a major turnaround very soon.