Chelsea’s Andrey Santos is making a great impression on Mauricio Pochettino during pre-season.
That is according to a report from The Evening Standard.
Mauricio Pochettino has been at work as Chelsea’s new head coach for a few weeks now, and it was great to see him kickstart his reign this week with a 5-0 win over Wrexham in a pre-season friendly.
Interestingly, the Blues manager has a lot of youngsters in his traveling party to cast his eye over.
The Evening Standard claims that Andrey Santos, who’s just 19, is making the most of his chance this summer.
It is understood that Pochettino is really impressed by what he’s seen from the teenage midfielder, who joined Chelsea earlier this year for £18million (Daily Mail).
The report says that Chelsea executives believe the Brazilian youngster is ready to be involved with the first-team group for the upcoming 2023/24 campaign.
However, Pochettino will have the final say on that decision and wants to assess the rising stars during the trip in the United States.
It’s important to note Santos now has a work permit secured, which means he’s available to play in England and stay at Stamford Bridge if that decision is made by the manager.
Santos definitely caught the eye with his performance in midweek against Wrexham.
He’s a proper box-to-box midfielder that looks fairly complete for a player. Of course, he’s still so young and his only first-team experience has been in Brazil with Vasco da Gama.
Hopefully, we get to see much more from him during the four remaining games of the pre-season tour.
The Blues certainly look light in the centre of the park right now, so it feels like there’s an opportunity for one or two to step up.