Mykhailo Mudryk is already testing Enzo Maresca's patience - a Chelsea exit for the £89m flop would benefit everyone

In truth, we have never really seen the player Chelsea thought they were signing in the 19 months since Mudryk joined from Shakhtar Donetsk in a transfer worth up to a staggering £89 million ($118m), including bonuses.

That astronomical fee - splurged during the club's extraordinary spend in the 2023 January window - has weighed heavily on the winger, who was probably worth half that sum at the time, while he has struggled to adapt to the rigours of the Premier League as a lightweight wide player.

His first few months at the club were a write-off with the club in disarray under Graham Potter and then Frank Lampard, which certainly won't have helped him settle, but Mauricio Pochettino's arrival last summer was supposed to change Mudryk's fortunes given the Argentine's reputation for improving and developing young players.

However, although he was a regular in the line-up, Pochettino's soft touch didn't have the desired effect as Mudryk continued to only demonstrate his ability in spurts, providing just two assists all season. He has had some electric moments, capable of dazzling footwork and breezing past defenders, but dearly lacks consistency - making him something of an enigma. It's become clear that his confidence is shot, and it needs to be built back up.

In Maresca, Murdryk is already working under the third manager of his brief Chelsea spell. The Italian has demonstrated an early determination to get the best out of 'Misha', but there is a sense that his patience could wear thin very quickly.

The new head coach has been seen giving Mudryk animated, in-game, one-on-one coaching in two recent home games - the friendly against Inter and Conference League play-off first leg against Servette - and he has been vocal in both his criticism and desire to help the 23-year-old improve.

"We are going to try to help him change," Maresca said after the Servette game, which Mudryk started. "He needs to try to understand that we are going to give him the ball in the last third. And when he's there, [it's about] taking the right decision.

"For me, most of the mistakes from Misha are not about the quality or the technical mistake - it's about the choice. Sometimes he tries to do something different and we lose the ball. Sometimes he has to go one-v-one. It's about decision-making. Hopefully we can help him improve that. If he can become more consistent, he can take one step forward."

Maresca may claim that he "wants to help" Mudryk rediscover his killer instinct, but Chelsea's expansive and bewildering business this summer suggests the club is actually readying itself to move on from another failed transfer. Amid a raft of other new arrivals, Chelsea signed Wolves left-winger Pedro Neto more or less out of nowhere for £54m ($71m), and a little over a week later Joao Felix was re-signed on a permanent basis from Atletico Madrid.

Granted, Raheem Sterling is being forced towards the exits, but Neto is very similar in profile as a direct winger who hugs the touchline, while he also excels in one-on-ones and has end product to boot. Felix, meanwhile, is more of an inside forward, but he is arguably at his best in the left half-space. That means both are a direct threat to Mudryk's place in the starting line-up, and indeed they could well be replacements for both him and Sterling.

In Chelsea's opening game of the Premier League season against Manchester City, it was Christopher Nkunku who was started from the left, with his Ukrainian counterpart left on the bench for the duration. "It has been difficult to pick the starting 11 because there are players on the bench who deserve to play such as Misha, but you have to make decisions," Maresca said afterwards when asked about Mudryk's absence.

Despite the arrival of the Portuguese pair Neto and Felix, Mudryk was handed a chance to stake his claim with a league start against Wolves on Sunday, but it proved to be another opportunity that passed him.

In a dour first period, he had just 13 touches of the ball, completed one dribble, won just one out of five duels and finished with a pitiful pass accuracy of 62 percent. By half-time Maresca had seen enough, hooking Mudryk and replacing him with Neto with the scores level at 2-2.

To make matters worse, Neto would make a significant impact, breaking down the left and firing a pinpoint cross into his compatriot Felix to finish beautifully without breaking stride and wrap up an eventual 6-2 victory as Chelsea ran riot in the second half. Mudryk was forced to watch on from the bench, and that may well be where he remains after failing to impress in consecutive starts.

When asked about his decision to haul the Ukraine international off at the break after the game, Maresca's tone had changed: "Because I was not happy. In some moments we can manage some situations better. He was working hard off the ball but on the ball, I expect a bit more quality from Misha. He had some good moments today but the reason why was to change it and give Pedro some minutes."

There are shades of his treatment of Sterling in Maresca's words - a player he has exiled from the first team having previously claimed he was "important". The question of what happens next is a big one for Mudryk; at present he looks like being nothing more than a back-up option at Stamford Bridge having evidently disappointed his manager in his first two outings of the campaign.

It's just as well Chelsea are on course to qualify for the Conference League, as that competition offers him a reprieve, but even then the 23-year-old is staring down the barrel of being a bit-part player under Maresca barring a significant turnaround or, of course, injuries.

Mudryk's fate may well be decided by yet another attacking signing, as the Blues are tentatively linked with what would be a perplexing move for Manchester United's own costly flop, Jadon Sancho. Predominantly a left-winger, that would push the struggling Chelsea man even further down the pecking order.

At this stage a Premier League loan might well be the best course of action for a player whose path to a regular starting place is winding and strewn with obstacles, but time is fast running out for him to find an escape route.

Despite his talent, however, the chances of that loan being a success are undeniably slim, and Chelsea's transfer business - both completed and rumoured - suggests the club is already planning for life without Mudryk, either in the short or long-term.

In general, very few players go out on loan, have an incredible season and return to reclaim a starting place, and Chelsea's loanee success rate is perhaps even lower than the average. But removing the player from the club, perhaps it is time for a fresh start.

Mudryk has faced a significant uphill battle since the day he joined Chelsea as the Blues grossly overpaid Shakhtar for his services. While he was never going to be able to justify that price tag, he can be forgiven for failing to adapt as the club he arrived at descended into chaos - especially against the backdrop of the war in his home country. All of that seems to have combined to cause a crisis of confidence.

There were the shoots of progress last season, but it's evident that Chelsea have once again lurched in another direction, with a host of attacking arrivals pushing Mudryk down the pecking order. As usual, no-one at Stamford Bridge will tolerate stragglers in the relentless pursuit of success, and Maresca's patience is seemingly wearing thin already. Leaving on loan or permanently elsewhere, he could rebuild his career out of the glare of the Chelsea spotlight.