‘Not ready yet’: Frank Leboeuf calls for patience with 22-year-old Chelsea player

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Frank Leboeuf insists that Mykhailo Mudryk isn’t ready yet to be in the Chelsea starting line-up.

Mykhailo Mudryk, who moved to Stamford Bridge back in January, is under real pressure to make a huge impact in the Chelsea squad. The reason is his transfer from Shakhtar Donetsk could end up costing as much as £89million (BBC).

Despite a scintillating debut against Liverpool, Mudryk has had a fairly slow start in his opening couple of months in West London.

The 22-year-old has been in and out of Graham Potter’s starting line-up. In fact, he only started and played in one of the previous four games before the international break.

Leboeuf has delivered a fairly in-depth assessment of Mudryk.

He thinks everyone needs to be patient with the Ukraine international, who’s still a youngster adapting to a new league and country.

In addition, he supports Potter’s decision-making behind not playing him every game.

Writing in Simon Phillips’ Substack, Leboeuf said: “I think it’s a very good idea to leave Mudryk out right now at least. It’s only fair for him to be protected by the coach, by us, by the media, and by the pundits. The fans should understand that the guy is going through hell right now being Ukrainian, seeing his family being in a war in his country.

“He’s very young, it’s a big change for him, big money spent on him – the guy has too much pressure, and you have to make sure he is going to adjust and adapt to a new situation in the best way.

“Putting him on the field right now because he is worth £88m and because he has to give back in a way the money that the club put down on him would be unfair and would be a little bit silly. The guy is not ready yet.

“We can all be impatient, we live in a world of impatience and we want to see the best of Mudryk, we want to see what he did in his first game for us. But right now we have to be a bit patient.”

Former Chelsea striker Andriy Shevchenko also believes that Mudryk is very much a star for the future.

In our view, Mudryk should have received more game time than he’s had so far.

Yes, the rapid left-winger isn’t going to play every match. It’s worth pointing out the competition for places at the top end of the pitch is stiff, too.

However, the January recruit has blistering pace and frightens opposition players.

The best way for him to build momentum and adapt is through more minutes on the pitch, so we’d like to see him get more opportunities after the break.