Kendry Paez career crisis? Why Chelsea’s signing now centre of debate inside Ecuadorian football

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COMMENT: Fatigue. Form. Skipping stages. It's all come at Kendry Paez fast these past few weeks as Chelsea's imminent new arrival experiences his first career trough...

Peaks and troughs. Whether it's form. Fitness. Career. It comes to every player. And that Paez, at 17, has now seen his skyrocketing progress suddenly stall, it doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing.

As we say, the move to Chelsea will happen at the end of the season. Though for Ecuador coach Sebastian Beccacece, Paez's 18th birthday and his departure from Independiente del Valle cannot come soon enough.

"I think it will do him good to get out of here," declared the Argentine, who took charge of Ecuador in August after 12 months as Elche coach in Spain. "I can't wait for him to get out of here. I wish he was out of the country now.

"He has to know how to manage that he is already sold, his age and that maybe there are distractions."

Beccacece's comments affirming the concern for the IDV attacker as his actions and behaviour - on and off the pitch - have come under daily scrutiny since the June announcement that he had been sold to Chelsea.

However, for all the opinion and criticism, that concern being expressed from those inside the game is - for the moment - for the here and now. In terms of potential. Of projection. No-one connected to Ecuadorian football are claiming Chelsea have been sold a pup. It's a career trough. Nothing more. Nothing less. Something for Paez to experience, to learn from and overcome.

The pressure. The expectations. For this season, it does appear it's all caught up to Paez. Going into the campaign and the kid was flying. Featuring for Ecuador in the Copa America over the summer, Paez became the youngest player to score in the tournament. His performances only adding weight to claims that Chelsea had found themselves a potential world-beater.

But in the league, things haven't fallen Paez's way. Indeed, from being a first-choice over the second-half of last season, the teen has found himself well out of the plans of IDV coach Javier Gandolfi.

Paez has managed just three starts this season and twice has been left on the bench for the full game. Despite the lack of minutes, Beccacece chose to call up Paez for the latest international round, but there was a hook at halftime for the 0-0 World Cup qualifying draw with Paraguay. Then for the stalemate with Uruguay, Paez was left on the bench.

"He is treated as one more," declared Beccacece afterwards, "he does not feel over-observed, he feels natural, he is happy to play football and I think he can improve his performance because I have seen him do very good things."

Then, hinting that Paez may be overlooked for the next round of qualifiers, Beccacece added: "We need him to have continuity in his (club) day to day as here, I have told him."

For Ecuador legend Alex Aguinaga, the decision to withdraw Paez from national team duty cannot come soon enough. The former midfielder insisting Paez should not be rewarded when his form doesn't warrant a senior call.

"I would take into account only sports, which is what the coach is interested in," says Aguinaga. "He (Beccacece) is not his Dad, to have to correct the problems that Kendry Páez has. Nor does he have to be a tutor. If he is in good form he is summonable and if he is not, he is not called. I don't see him in a good moment, and it's not a disciplinary matter."

Meanwhile, former Ecuador striker Franklin Salas, a four-time league champion with Quito, believes the FA was wrong to accelerate Paez's progress through the age groups.

"I think Kendry Páez was hurt, he was forced to skip stages," says Salas. "The fact that they don't send you to play with the U17s, with the U20s, they overprotect you. And the player for better or worse, you have to burn stages, you need to feel important among players your age.

“And he, due to both the FEF and his club, was not allowed to burn those stages."

Salas raised Cesar Menotti's decision to leave an 18 year-old Diego Maradona out of the 1978 World Cup. The following year, Maradona won the U20 World Cup with Argentina: "Through Menotti's decision, they aroused more in Maradona's hunger to be something. Those stages sometimes have to be respected."

A lesson for Chelsea to heed? Perhaps. But beyond those around him, the challenge for Paez now is to prove he can shake this slump. It's a trough, no doubt about it. But though he's been a senior player for over three years now, at 17, if ever Kendry Paez is going to learn how to fight through such a slump, there couldn't be a better time in a career.

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