The future of Samu Castillejo continues to be the subject of speculation given the winger has seemingly been frozen out entirely by Stefano Pioli.
Calciomercato.com report how Pioli has made it evident that he does not consider Castillejo to be a resource worth using so far in 2022 as the Spaniard has not played a single minute since 19 December, when he came on for the the final quarter of an hour in the home defeat against Napoli.
Despite the absence of Rebic, Brahim Diaz’s poor condition and the fluctuating performance of Messias and Saelemaekers, Castillejo cannot find any playing time and in January he was strongly linked with an exit that never materialised.
At first, a return to Spain seemed the most viable track, with Espanyol and especially Valencia coming forward, and in the final few hours of the mercato it was Sampdoria who tried to sign him, but he decided to decline because he was not convinced of reuniting with Marco Giampaolo.
His exit has therefore been postponed because his contract expires in June 2023 and this coming summer the management will look for a new opportunity for him to find a club that can give him more playing time.
