The future of Alejandro Garnacho at Aston Villa took another interesting turn on Wednesday night, as he was an unused substitute in the 3-1 Carabao Cup victory over Coventry City.
It marks the third straight game that Garnacho has not made it off the bench, after playing a little over half an hour of combined minutes in the first three games of the season.
The 22-year-old joined on loan with a conditional obligation to buy based on a certain number of appearances, which was believed to be easy to trigger.
Villa fans have heard this before though, as Harvey Elliott arrived in a similar situation last season, only to be frozen out by manager Unai Emery, failing to impress him and hit the trigger of ten Premier League appearances to make his loan permanent.
It was natural to draw the line between the two as Garnacho struggled for playing time in the first few games, but Emery seemed to put those ideas to bed when asked about the winger recently.
Last week, he said of Garnacho: “He is a player we have signed for a long time, and we will help him to feel comfortable and confident to get his quality”.
It is clear Villa are trying to ease him in and build him up slowly, but a third-round Carabao Cup tie felt like the ideal time for him to not only play, but probably start for the first time.
Instead, he was left on the bench again, with Ibrahim Mbaye – who only signed on deadline day – starting, and 19-year-old George Hemmings keeping his place on the left wing.
Despite Villa making five substitutions, Garnacho did not come on, as the likes of Johan Manzambi, Emi Buendia and Alysson all got minutes ahead of him.
Quizzed on Garnacho again after the game, Emery made a telling statement on his status, saying: “He is progressing, but we have players in front of him now”.
“George is playing fantastic. Alysson is also understanding things well and is giving us things I want. Mbaye also responded well. Garnacho is a little bit behind, because of some circumstances we had in pre-season. It is time to be patient for the time he needs."
Garnacho missed time during preseason with a concussion, and it seems he is now well down the pecking order. It is reminiscent of what happened to Elliott, who was made obsolete by the emergence of Buendia as a regular contributor after some time out in the cold.
At this stage, it is difficult to tell whether Villa are already mentally committed to signing Garnacho permanently, or if they are yet to decide. But if he cannot get on the pitch because he is blocked by players Emery prefers, we could be heading towards another unfortunate situation.
As of now, it seems Garnacho faces an uphill battle to make an impact at Villa Park.
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