Chelsea at risk of losing another prized youngster over lack of opportunities

Continuing with the current theme of Chelsea v. youth prospects, it seems that another prized youngster from Chelsea's youth ranks might be looking for a way out of Stamford Bridge.  This time, it's Charly Musonda, according to Matt Law from the Telegraph.  And while it's Ruben Loftus-Cheek who's drawn the ironic headlines of "Chelsea's Paul Pogba" (but not in the positive sense), it's perhaps Charly Jr. who's the closer analogue to Pogba's plight at Manchester United.

Charly Musonda Jr. arrived at Chelsea along with his brothers Lamisha and Tika in 2012 in a deal with Belgian club Anderlecht, brokered by their father and former Zambian international Charly Musonda. Since then, Charly Jr. has gathered plenty of plaudits and admirers thanks to his showings with Chelsea's U18 and U21 teams (and for Belgium's international youth teams as well), making up for his diminutive size with dominant skills and work rate.

Even though the 19-year-old just signed a contract extension in March for more four more years, Chelsea are apparently at risk of unsettling Musonda due to the lack of opportunities given to him this season, starting in pre-season when he was excluded at the last minute from the first-team squad selected to take part in our US friendlies (to make room for eventually discarded Victor Moses, rumour has it).  It's also rumoured that Musonda refused to move on loan to Vitesse to join fellow Academy players Lewis Baker, Isaiah Brown and Dominic Solanke as well as Nathan and Danilo Pantic.  Despite that, Chelsea might try to point him to this direction once again to appease his demands, while also offering him yet another new deal.

Adding further fuel to rumours of discontentment, reports from Belgium (later confirmed by Musonda's father) claim that the youngster changed agents. Previously represented by Portuguese super-agent Jorge Mendes, Musonda dismissed him to give way to Aidy Ward, the man behind Raheem Sterling's big money move to Manchester City this summer.  Plenty of ominous dots there to connect.

As potential suitors to Musonda, in case everything falls apart and Chelsea decide to cash-in early, there are several big clubs on the list, including Arsenal and Manchester United, supposedly. There's also AS Monaco, whose interest drew comments from Charly Sr. earlier this year as he claimed his son should move out of Stamford Bridge not only for his own good but also Chelsea's.

In years past, a 19-year-old player such as Musonda probably wouldn't have had as much leverage as nowadays. But in an era in which clubs are more than willing to pay exorbitant fees to players who aren't yet at their physical or technical peak, it's all getting more difficult and complicated.  Unfortunately, there are no easy answers or solutions here.  We can only hope this won't peg us in the back in the near future.