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Matt Miazga's move to Chelsea in January was seen as a head-scratcher by many. While it's nice to be optimistic about a young player moving abroad to test himself at the highest level, there didn't appear to be a clear path to first team minutes at Stamford Bridge for the defender anytime soon.
After an agreement between player and club to keep him with the first team to finish out the 2015-16 season, a new manager has arrived and could possibly have different plans.
So far, Miazga has received minimal minutes during Chelsea's preseason and that's even with Kurt Zouma out injured and any possible center back signings coming in. From the outside perspective, there just doesn't seem to be any minutes available for the American this season.
Miazga spoke with reporters after Saturday night's friendly against Real Madrid in Michigan and stated that he didn't know of any plans to send him out on loan for this season.
Antonio Conte, the club's new manager, followed that up by saying that he'd need to speak with management before making a decision on the 21-year-old's future.
"About [Miazga's] situation, I prefer to speak with the club.
"With the club, we are agreed that after this period, and after I have seen the situation with the players, we must take together the right decision for the player, for the club. It's important this."
-Antonio Conte; Source: ESPNFC
While his status with the first team is still up in the air, using a little bit of logic, we can presume he's destined for some kind of loan move barring something drastic (i.e. injury) changing.
It's hard to envision Chelsea staying pat in the transfer window. There's still a whole month left for reinforcements to be brought in and revamp the club's back line. If that happens then Miazga's fate will likely be sealed. It's possible that they are delaying any loan decision to wait and see how the transfer window unfolds.
H/T to We Ain't Got No History