Chelsea beat Ipswich Town on Friday night to reach the quarterfinals of the U21 Premier League Cup, thanks to a dramatic last-minute winner from Ryan Kavuma-McQueen securing a 2-1 victory for the young Blues.
There were plenty of familiar names in the squad, with the likes of Shim Mheuka, Sam Rak-Sakyi, and Genesis Antwi starting, all of whom have had some involvement with the first-team already this season — the latter doing so just before joining the first team bench for our win over Leicester City barely 24 hours later in fact.
But perhaps the most noteworthy name on the team sheet was Omari Kellyman, who would come on for the final 20 minutes for his first minutes since August. The 19-year-old £19m-kid (PSR-part of the Ian Maatsen deal) had been out for the past six months with a hamstring problem, which had prevented him from going on loan in either the summer or the winter transfer windows after joining from Aston Villa back in July.
That probably wasn’t what was envisioned for him back then, but perhaps he can still salvage his season to some extent. In fact, Ben Jacobs is reporting that Kellyman is now “hoping to be included in first-team training at some point in April and to make his senior debut for the club between now and the end of the season”, which is indeed a bold ambition given the logjam ahead of him at attacking midfield.
Jacobs’ report adds that Chelsea are still targeting a loan (next season) for Kellyman as his next steps.
In any case, welcome back, Omari!