Michy Batshuayi’s future to be assessed at the end of the season

Michy Batshuayi has got to be closing in on some sort of Premier League record, having made 16 appearances so far this season, but having accumulated only a grand total of 93 minutes. That’s an average of less than 6 minutes per appearance, and that actually seems a bit generous — probably because his last 8 appearances have accounted for just 21 minutes total, half his already minuscule season average for minutes per appearance.

The obvious point is that Batshuayi’s barely playing, outside of the five starts he had made in the League Cup and the first two rounds of the FA Cup. Clearly this season has not gone the way anyone expected when Chelsea plunked down £33m for the former Marseille man last summer.

January was already filled with transfer and loan rumors as far as the 23-year-old’s future is concerned, and the summer promises to be much the same. Here’s his agent basically saying the same thing in a rather vague fashion.

“For now we intend to focus on the club's and player's objectives at the end of the season.”

-Batshuayi’s unnamed agent; source: Football.London

With Costa and Lukaku (and Morata?) rumors just about a daily occurrence these days, Batshuayi’s future is a lesser, but perhaps no less important concern. There’s no doubt Chelsea saw Michy as a big player for the future, but so far this season, he’s not really lived up to that promise. Granted, we’ve barely seen him during matches, but Conte’s usage and substitution patterns are telling.

Do we pull the plug on the Michy experiment after just one season? Is it really just a case of Costa keeping him out of the team? And what about making room for Tammy Abraham? Plenty of questions and unknowns to resolve this offseason.