Former Chelsea forward Chris Sutton believes Christian Pulisic would not have been targeted by Frank Lampard had he been making the recruitment calls.
Pulisic joined the Blues from Borussia Dortmund in the summer, despite the deal having been agreed between the clubs last January with Maurizio Sarri still in charge of Chelsea.
And after the Stamford Bridge club forked out £58 million to secure the 21-year-old's services, expectation was high that midfielder could come in and hit the ground running at his new club.
But so far this season, the USA international has found game time hard to come by, with a 10-minute cameo off the bench in Sunday’s 4-1 win at Southampton his first Premier League appearance since the draw against Sheffield United at the end of August.
And Sutton, speaking on Radio 5 Live on Monday night, fears Pulisic’s situation is unlikely to improve any time soon due to the players Lampard has at his disposal at the moment.
"He has to prove himself,” the former Blues forward said.
“Frank Lampard has no agenda against him, he’s picking the best possible team to win games of football, that’s his job.
“He wasn’t Frank’s signing, of course.
“With [Callum] Hudson-Odoi and Mason Mount coming to the fore, he’s going to have a major issue getting into the starting line-up. I really do think that. I don’t see a way in for him at the moment.
“Fifty-eight million, a lot of money to spend and it would be interesting to ask Frank now if he would sign him at this moment in time if he hadn’t signed him before? The answer to that, I think, is pretty obvious – he wouldn’t.
“But, there’s a reason Chelsea spent the money on him, he’s still a young man and got enormous talent, he has to go out and show it. It’s good for Frank in terms of strength in depth.”
