Clotet gives fitness update on Josh McEachran, it could be too little too late – Report

What do you think is going to come first?

A new government, or Josh McEachran’s next appearance for the Blues?

It’s not exactly been the best of starts to his time at St Andrew’s. Having been on trial for so long before officially putting pen to paper at the end of September, he has only gone on to make one appearance for the club, a 28 minute substitute appearance against Blackburn Rovers.

Speaking in his press conference ahead of the clash with Huddersfield Town, Pep Clotet explained that it was a matter of fitness that is keeping him out of the team right now:

“He’s putting in all the effort that he can to make sure he’s ready, so that’s good. We have a lot of games now from now until Christmas so everyone will make a difference. It was a long time since he last played regularly. I see him very focused on using this opportunity to get back as strong as possible and he’s putting in the right steps in the right direction.”

Whilst I can understand the club to some extent wanting to be cautious in their use of him, and not wanting to get him injured if they rush him back, I kind of feel that time is running out for him to be given a fair crack at making the team.

With Ivan Sunjic and Jude Bellingham more or less securing their places as the team’s first-choice central midfielders, it’s going to be hard for him to dislodge either of them from that spot, unless he tries to reinvent himself like Dan Crowley has by playing out on the wing, I fear that he may have missed his opportunity.

Clotet speaks about the club having a lot of games over the Christmas period, but what about before then? If it’s all about match fitness, then wouldn’t it be better for him to actually be playing games? I’m not saying that he should be start be starting, but if we can at least start seeing him a little bit more during games, then I won’t be left thinking that this has all been a big waste of time.

At the end of the day, we have brought him in for a reason, and I fail to believe that that reason was to sit on the bench and then only be brought out over Christmas, like some kind of ornament on the tree.