The only player younger than Trevoh Chalobah to play more minutes than him in the Premier League last season at Chelsea was Reece James. His impressive debut season saw the unproven 23-year-old rack-up game time that outnumbered Hakim Ziyech, Timo Werner and Christian Pulisic.
That attacking trio cost Chelsea more than £130m in transfer fees. Chalobah came through the academy. He was also coming off the back of a decent but not spectacular season in France with Lorient. He started the campaign as a defensive midfielder before being moved to centre-back.
For all purposes, his career at Stamford Bridge looked to be coming to an end this time one year ago as Chelsea pursued Jules Kounde. If you asked anyone at that time who was more likely to be still in Thomas Tuchel's plans 12 months later, Chalobah would have been a pointless answer.
