José Mourinho has run out of excuses to keep Thiago Pitarch waiting. The young midfielder is fit again and has shown he can compete. Real Madrid blocked his exit in the summer, so the ball now sits firmly at the Portuguese's feet. He must decide what the academy graduate's role is in his project, all the more so with his midfield still a work in progress.
Fulham, under Arbeloa, chased Pitarch right up to the closing hours of the window, according to the Spanish newspaper "Marca". Real Madrid turned the offer down flat. Mourinho leaned on the player and wanted him to stay.
Pitarch may not be officially registered with the first team, but Mourinho has made no secret of wanting him involved. A knee injury kept him out of pre-season, and once he recovered he used the break to rebuild his sharpness. He featured in four matches, three with Real Madrid Castilla and one with Spain's under-20 side.
Those outings added up over the last three weeks. Pitarch racked up 288 minutes, more than Aurélien Tchouaméni's 189 and just one shy of Bernardo Silva's 289, according to the figures reported.
Now the fitness question has been answered, the real one looms: where does Pitarch fit? Mourinho still hasn't locked down his double pivot. He has tried every option in that role bar one, and that one is Pitarch, the piece that might just hand a stuttering midfield the balance and stability it craves.
There is plenty to tempt him. Mourinho watched the youngster shine with the first team last season at close quarters. He called him a raw talent but talked up his ceiling, joking: "Thiago has a lot of potential, but I tell him that his legs are like mine, and that he needs to work on them".
His first-team breakthrough came under Arbeloa. Pitarch made his debut against Benfica in the first leg of the round of 16, played in the return, and slowly began to belong.
From there it only grew. He turned up in the big ones against Manchester City and Bayern Munich, and in the Madrid derby too, proof that pressure doesn't rattle him despite his years.
Arbeloa's exit left Pitarch in limbo, caught between the first team and a return to Castilla. Mourinho dug in and kept him. Now he has to turn that choice into real minutes on the pitch.
He held onto Pitarch when the exit door stood open. The test starts here. Villarreal could be the moment the Portuguese finally shows just how big a part he has in mind for the young midfielder.