Watford manager, Walter Mazzarri, has confirmed that Chelsea youngster Kenedy has returned to his parent club after a rather disappointing time at Vicarage Road.
"Kenedy went back to Chelsea. He was a player we never had time to evaluate because he was injured the whole time," Mazzari told the press on Tuesday.
Under former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, the young Brazilian showed his potential, raking in 20 appearances the previous season and an assist. The player was used by the Portuguese manager in various competitions, in what was a season to forget for Chelsea fans.
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The winger was praised by Mourinho himself quite a lot. “We bought Kenedy because we believe in him. He’s a very young kid that we believe a lot in, hopefully. We have conditions to get him a work permit because we want him. We don’t want him to go out on loan. I think we have what the rules demand to get him a permit. He was in pre-season with us without the documents so he couldn’t play the first two matches for us.”
Antonio Conte replaced the Portuguese manager, but quickly decided that Kenedy would not be part of his plans and sent him on loan to Watford, to further aid his development in hopes that he would see a lot of first-team action. Upon joining Watford however, the player suffered a knee injury and ended up managing only 15 minutes for the club which came in a 2-0 defeat to Burnley all the way back in September.
Earlier this month, Chelsea midfielder Cesc Fabregas uploaded a picture of himself and Kenedy to social media app Instagram, fueling speculation that the Brazilian had already returned to the club and was training. It is not yet known what Antonio Conte has in mind for the youngster, especially considering the form of players in the same position as him.
(Video Courtesy: MiroP10 YouTube Channel)
Players like Victor Moses, Pedro, Willian and Hazard are on quite a run, and there doesn’t seem a need to mess with a formula that is clearly working.
The player’s return date is unknown, as he’s still undergoing physiotheraphy for his knee injury. A loan could be on the cards, but the player’s development has been stalled, and this will be quite worrying for the Chelsea staff, who did indeed have high hopes for him.
