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After a season away at Vitesse Cobham East in the Netherlands, former Chelsea Young Player of the Year (2011-12) Lucas Piazon is back at Cobham proper, training with old friends, enjoying life in London once again.
Dinner with my Brazilian friends tonight n now the game!!! @LucasPiazon @jupiazon @Patrick_Bamford pic.twitter.com/j19zPqmhlL
— Nathaniel Chalobah (@chalobah) July 8, 2014
Boy, I hope she got a discount on those jeans. They seem to have belonged to Edward Scissorhands previously.
Piazon had a bit of an uneven time at Vitesse, starting off like gangbusters and winning supporters' hearts straight away before the second half of the season saw a precipitous fall of form, eventually mirrored by the team dropping not only out of title contention but European places as well.
"It was a really good experience. I played a lot of games which is very important for me now. I think I did a good job in the beginning. After about February until the end of the season the team dropped a little bit but if you see the season as a whole I think it was a good one for me."
-Lucas Piazon; source: Chelsea FC
Eleven goals and eight assists is certainly not bad, but it's always better to end the season on an upswing rather than a down. Nevertheless, Piazon's talent remains undoubted and a decision will soon have to be made on what's next for the now 20-year-old. He's definitely not going back to Vitesse, but it seems entirely too optimistic to think that he has a big enough role yet to play in the Chelsea first-team.
"It's always nice to be here and to see everybody again and to see the friends that I've spent a lot of time with."
"I don't know what is going to happen but at the moment I'm really happy to be here. I will play in pre-season until we make a decision and I will try to do what's the best thing for me."
-Lucas Piazon; source: Chelsea FC
This dilemma is certainly not unique to Piazon. Others like Chalobah, McEachran, Bamford, Aké -- just to name a few -- will be facing similar decisions and uncertainties. Hopefully we find solutions beneficial to both the players and the club, both for the present and for the future.