OPINION
Remember Carlos Sanchez, West Ham fans?
He was the Hammers’ tenth signing of a busy summer last year, and this season he was only able to mount up six appearances in all competitions before getting injured in the Carabao Cup clash against Macclesfield Town in September.
Many West Ham fans were no doubt dubious about the signing of the 33-year-old anyway, despite the fact that he had enjoyed spells with the likes of Aston Villa and Fiorentina.
However, his future looks rather bleak with the Irons upon his eventual return from injury, which is expected to be in April according to Football London journalist Sam Inkersole back in October 2018.
He operates as a central midfielder, a position which is as crowded as it is. The rise of Declan Rise from the youth ranks means that the possibility of forcing his way into the first team will be a rather tough task – or impossible after the season he has had so far.
The fact that the 20-year-old made his England debut in the 5-0 thrashing of the Czech Republic does not help matters either, as it has just reinforced to Manuel Pellegrini what a dazzling star he actually is.
To be honest, many Irons fans would not be too gutted if Sanchez did end up leaving the club in the summer. His chances look very limited, and he will no doubt want to be somewhere he is guaranteed more minutes.
To put it quite simply, he is not at the standard that Pellegrini wants his team to be at next season. The manager is surely planning bigger things for the team, and after the amount of time Sanchez has been absent for, that certainly does not include him.
Yes, the rarely-seen player has not really had much of a chance to prove himself and show that he is worthy of staying at the club. That being said, it has now become a time where more younger players are taking centre stage and players like Sanchez move on.
Sanchez’ future at the London Stadium is surely down the drain when he returns, and he only has his talented teammate to blame for that.
