Chelsea defender Josh Acheampong remains part of the first-team squad, but has played only eight minutes across the club’s last seven matches.<\/p>\n
The 19-year-old’s sole appearance since the end of October came as a substitute in the 3-0 home win over Barcelona, with the match already won.<\/p>\n
As reported in the summer<\/a>, Premier League and overseas clubs have shown interest in Acheampong, amid doubts over whether he can establish a bigger role within the squad.<\/p>\n It was notable, therefore, that Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca said in his press conference ahead of Saturday’s trip to Bournemouth: “One of the regrets I have after the [Leeds] game is that I didn’t play Josh.<\/p>\n “The reason we went with Trevoh [Chalobah], Beno\u00eet [Badiashile] and Tosin [Adarabioyo] was because we anticipated long balls to their strikers, but even then, we lost most of them.”<\/p>\n Badiashile was withdrawn at half-time for Malo Gusto, Chalobah played the first half out of position at right-back and Tosin was at fault for the third goal in Wednesday night’s 3-1 defeat at Leeds.<\/a> Acheampong, who is equally comfortable at centre-back and right-back, did not get on the pitch.<\/p>\n Chelsea’s stance remains unchanged: Acheampong is regarded as an important player for the future and is not for sale. The reason the Blues did not sign a centre-back, despite Maresca saying he wanted one after Levi Colwill suffered a major injury in pre-season, is because they believe Acheampong is capable of playing at a high level.<\/a><\/p>\n The club are planning a relatively quiet January window, in terms of both incoming and outgoing transfers for the first-team squad, but fringe players are likely to explore their options in the hope the position is relaxed. <\/p>\n