The international break is usually a chance for players to step away from club football. For Alejandro Garnacho, that luxury does not really exist.<\/p>\n
There was a time when the winger looked destined for much bigger things. Signed by Manchester United as a highly rated teenager, he made his senior debut at 17 in April 2022 and had already become one of the side\u2019s most effective players by the 2023-24 season. That campaign ended with him finishing sixth in the Kopa Trophy voting, a sign that his rise had gathered real momentum.<\/p>\n
What followed was far less predictable.<\/p>\n
In December 2024, Garnacho and Marcus Rashford were omitted from a matchday squad for the derby against Manchester City after manager Ruben Amorim said he was unhappy with their training performances. Garnacho returned quickly and was praised for the way he responded, while Rashford never played under Amorim again. But his situation soon worsened as he found it difficult to fit into Amorim\u2019s winger-less system.<\/p>\n
The relationship reached its breaking point after the 2025 Europa League final, when Garnacho questioned why he had not started. Amorim then told him to find a new club, and Chelsea moved in. They had considered a January 2025 approach before paying $54 million (\u00a340 million) six months later.<\/p>\n
However, the move did not develop as hoped. Chelsea\u2019s recruitment team drove the deal and Enzo Maresca had not spoken with Garnacho before his arrival, which went some way to explaining his limited starts. He was not criticised for attitude or work rate, but his end product was modest, with eight goals in all competitions and only one in the Premier League.<\/p>\n
Chelsea then accepted that offers could be entertained after one season, leading Garnacho to Aston Villa on loan with an obligation to buy under certain conditions. Even there, the search for rhythm has stalled. Unai Emery has given him just 31 minutes this season, with his latest appearance coming on Sept. 5. He was an unused substitute against Coventry City in the Carabao Cup and remained on the bench for the win over Tottenham Hotspur.<\/p>\n
\u201cWork, work, train, work,\u201d Emery said, while also noting that other players are \u201cgiving us things I want.\u201d For Garnacho, the message is clear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Garnacho\u2019s rise has given way to frustration, with Chelsea and Aston Villa both offering little respite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20153,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[711,190,179],"tags":[1836,1066,182],"class_list":["post-20154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aston-villa","category-chelsea","category-manchester-united","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-carabao-cup","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}