Chelsea have once against farmed out Michy Batshuayi with the perennially unutilised striker joining Valencia on loan for the season.
Having spent the latter half of last season at Borussia Dortmund (where he scored nine goals in 14 appearances before an ankle injury curtailed his campaign), Batshuayi has been informed that he will not be guaranteed any action under new manager Maurizio Sarri and as such has been squirrelled elsewhere.
The announcement unfolded over a series of tweets exchanged between Los Che and Batshuayi.
The La Liga side kicked things off with a not-overly-cryptic Tweet about a “new bat” being spotted in the city.
π¦ Un nuevo murciΓ©lago llega a Valencia…#mismoclubnuevaera pic.twitter.com/nGjI2EEvSO
β Valencia CF π¦π― (@valenciacf) 10 August 2018
Several minutes later, Batshauyi popped up to say ‘ola’…
Ola Valencia como esta ??? π
β Michy Batshuayi (@mbatshuayi) 10 August 2018
His parent club then rounded things off in a conservative manner by wishing the Belgian striker well…
Best of luck in Spain, @mbatshuayi! ππ¦https://t.co/1U1fOZ8mqA
β Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) 10 August 2018
So that leaves Chelsea with just Alvaro Morata, Olivier Giroud and Tammy Abraham as recognised senior strikers going into the 2018/19 season.
Honestly, other than his often frustrating movement, we don’t fully understand why the last couple of Blues managers seem loathe to include Batshuayi on their benches.
While obviously not 100% content with his lot, he still scored 11 goals in 25 appearances (despite only completing a full 90 minutes on just four occasions) before leaving for Dortmund last year.
Surely a back-up forward with that kind of predatory ratio would be useful to have around the place?