Chelsea star sent brutal £37m message after Enzo Maresca snub and huge injury blow

Chelsea summer signing Jorrel Hato has been brutally told he should have stayed at Ajax after again remaining an unused substitute. The 19-year-old arrived at Stamford Bridge in early August with a £37million package agreed to sign him from the Dutch giants.

Capable of providing cover in the centre of defence and left-back, it looked to be an astute signing from the Blues particularly considering how many minutes Marc Cucurella and Levi Colwill were forced to play last season.

The toll of that on the latter seemingly told during pre-season as he suffered an ACL injury in training.Following that, the addition of Hato then looked to be completely justified with a ready-made replacement looking set to come in.

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However, Maresca rather publicly requested a new centre-back signing with the Chelsea boss going into quite a lot of detail about how Colwill was so important in the build up. That admission and leaving him on the bench for the first few Premier League games suggested Hato was not quite ready.

Having made over 100 senior appearances for Ajax, it is easy to forget he is only 19. Maresca is seemingly very aware of that, with the Blues' head coach keen to give him plenty of time to settle in, as evidenced by his half-time substitution on his first Premier League start against Brentford this past Saturday.

"We planned not all the game for Jorrel [Hato], because we said already many times, when you arrive from another country, you need time to adapt,"he admitted on Saturday evening in a press conference.

Unsurprisingly, the teenager remained on the bench for Wednesday's 3-1 Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich with a cameo at the Allianz Arena likely to be quite the baptism of fire.

Hato could undoubtedly have a hugely promising future in west London, and while former Tottenham boss Martin Jol expects him to do well, he has admitted he believes the defender should not have made the move.

"I wouldn’t have done it if I was him, but Levi Colwill is injured now so hopefully they play him," he told Betway.

"I know Maresca, he’s a terrific coach. I advised Ajax to take him but they were stubborn, they didn’t take him. So I think Hato’s in good hands. Don’t forget he was an international when he was 17.

"He’s maybe the biggest talent in Holland over the last five years. [Matthijs] De Ligt was an unbelievable talent, but he should be further down the line already, he should be a top, top player.

"I think Hato will do well. That is the main thing – when I had a young player, I played him. You could say 'that’s a good quality, Martin', but I had to play him because sometimes I didn’t have another player!

"Then you have to give him confidence. It’s easy to get on with the Berbatov’s and King’s of this world, but you have to get on with the young players and give them the support and the backing."