It's no secret that Adam Aznou's time on Merseyside has been trying for the young defender. Since joining Everton over the summer to decent fanfare, he hasn't seen much of the pitch due to an early injury, and now, the manager is not using him in matches.
Yesterday, the Moroccan international took to X (formerly Twitter) to look back on where he was a year ago. The post features the caption "almost a year ago" and a photo of the fullback playing for Valladolid, facing off against Barcelona star Lamine Yamal.
The teenagers are now heading in opposite directions, with Yamal starring for one of the biggest clubs in the world, scoring 15 times while adding 16 assists for club and country this season, while Aznou's time at Everton has been marked by disappointment.
He's seen time in just one senior match this season, a 35 minute subsitutue appearance in the FA Cup loss to Sunderland at Hill Dickinson back in early January. And, frankly, he was among the best players on the pitch during that appearance, causing Evertonians to stand up and take notice.
It seems like the only person who was not impressed was Everton manager David Moyes, who has only put Aznou on the bench as an unused substitute twice since then, both coming before the calendar flipped over to February.
And now comes this social media post.
Maybe it doesn't mean anything. It could be just a kid (he won't turn 20 until June 2) looking back at where he was a year ago with fondness. It's one of the things the internet makes rather simple these days.
But the other way of looking at the post is that Aznou is growing more and more unhappy with how his time at Everton has gone so far, and he's looking back longingly at a time when he was playing regular football. He didn't feature a ton in La Liga last year (just 13 matches, 10 starts), but that's miles of minutes compared to his Everton tenure.
There is still plenty of time for Aznou to become a key contributor for the Blues. He's still young, and incumbent left back Vitalii Mykolenko may be out of contract after the season (or possibly next), which means Aznou will have his chances to impress Moyes in the coming months.
But it continues to be baffling that Moyes would rather play Jarrad Branthwaite out of position than let Aznou have a run, and that may be why the young fullback is focusing on the past.
But here's hoping here's merely using it as fuel to press him toward the present.