When Everton brought in Adam Aznou this summer, he came with a great deal of hopes. Maybe he wouldn't massively contribute this season, at least not right away, but the thought was that by the end of the campaign, he'd have worked into the squad and would look to replace incumbant left back Vitalii Mykolenko in the Toffees' lineup.
And yet, as the calendar has turned over to 2026 and half of the Premier League season is gone, Aznou hasn't seen even a single minute of playing time. It looked like he was set to come close to his debut on Tuesday against Nottingham Forest, with the game well in hand, but eventually, David Moyes sat him down.
This all comes in the midst of reports that the club would be comfortable sending the teenager out on loan for the remainder of the season in order to give him some time on the pitch.
Quite frankly, neither of these situations makes any sense. Even the player himself is confused by what he has to do in order to see the pitch.
Mykolenko is not a world beater at left back. He can often be solid defensively, although not against all types of wingers, especially those who can beat him for pace, and lacks the ability to go forward as often as modern fullbacks should. He'll also turn 27 before the season is over, and his contract is set to expire in June.
The upside just isn't there with the Ukrainian, at least not enough to justify him being the nailed-on starter for a club with ambitions of European football in the next few seasons.
With Aznou, those things may exist. He's an excellent athlete with plenty of pace, and he showed a great deal of growth as a defender during his loan spell away from Bayern at Valladolid last year.
Sure, he doesn't have any Premier League experience, but he's not going to get it while either sitting on the bench or being sent out to another league where the football is likely to be different than the pace and physicality of England's top flight.
Nobody is asking him to start and play 90 minutes right away. But the build up has to begin to get him some time on the pitch so he can learn and grow; to actually gain that Premier League experience Moyes values so much.
Otherwise, Everton are setting Aznou up to fail, and, by extension, this will put the club in dire straits heading into next summer.