For many Chelsea fans the names will already be running through their heads: Kevin De Bruyne, Mohamed Salah, Romelu Lukaku. And the fear is that another may be added to that list.

Young players who left after feeling they were not given a chance and went on to flourish elsewhere. Even if Lukaku was re-signed – for almost £90m more than he was sold for – and failed.

The concern is about Estêvão. The Brazilian has barely featured under Xabi Alonso, who kept him on the bench – despite being without Cole Palmer and João Pedro – during the Carabao Cup exit to Liverpool on Wednesday and afterwards gave the 19-year-old the most lukewarm of endorsements.

“I understand [Estêvão’s] situation and he could be happier for sure. He wants to play and to be part of the team,” Alonso said. “There will be moments for everything. I’m sure Este will have his moments – that’s my responsibility. We know that the season is going to be long and there will be moments for everyone. Trust me, Este is going to play his role.”

Throughout the second half the travelling Chelsea fans made their feelings known, chanting Estêvão’s name as he warmed up. Instead Alonso decided to bring on Emmanuel Emegha for his debut and did not use Estêvão at all.

With a penalty shoot-out looming, Alonso overlooked Estêvão even though he has scored eight of the 10 spot-kicks he has taken in his career.

The irony will not be lost on the winger that the last time Chelsea beat Liverpool last October, just a couple of months after he joined the club, he scored the winning goal against the then Premier League champions.

The fact is he has – so far – made just two starts in 11 games under Alonso and both of those were in earlier rounds of the Carabao Cup against Luton Town and Leeds United. In the Premier League Estêvão has played 47 minutes, with three late substitute appearances. Clearly Alonso has been underwhelmed by the impact he has made even if his time on the pitch has been limited.

Indeed Estêvão has played more minutes for his country – 172 in three friendly internationals – this season and it is while representing Brazil, against India, that he scored his only goal.

Only a hamstring injury denied him a place in Carlo Ancelotti’s squad for the last World Cup after his breakthrough season at Chelsea when he made 36 appearances, scoring eight goals including three in the Champions League. It is hard to see him reaching that number of games this season under Alonso, especially without European football.

It is also back in Brazil where there is a rising sense of frustration and anger about what Chelsea’s and – more specifically – Alonso’s plan is for their golden child. The more he continues to be overlooked, the more that will increase with clubs across the Premier League and Europe already taking a keen interest in how Estêvão’s situation will play out. If he does not feature Chelsea can expect to receive, at the very least, loan enquiries in January. They will surely be rejected. But how much will he play under Alonso?

It does not help him that Pedro, Palmer and Morgan Rogers have – arguably – become the most impressive front three in the Premier League. It also does not help that he may not appear to fit into Alonso’s preferred system. When Estêvão signed for Chelsea in 2024, before arriving the next year after the Club World Cup where he impressed, for an initial fee of £29m from Brazilian club Palmeiras his agent, André Cury said: “He can adapt to any style of play. Chelsea is a club that sees Estêvão playing as a No 10. For us that is important. He can develop even more playing in the middle.”

So far he has featured as a winger and it does not look like Alonso trusts him in the usual 3-4-2-1 system. Even so, it is understood that the Spaniard’s reluctance to use Estêvão is not down to anything more than him not fitting into what he wants. Not yet anyway. Although that must be a worry for the player.

Estêvão is a young player and there is time but with Palmer free from suspension there is no expectation that he will start Saturday lunchtime’s fixture at home to Manchester United and will again be on the bench.

Estêvão’s other route into the side is to challenge Pedro Neto, on the right, but the Portuguese acts more as wing-back – and that is not where Estêvão plays – and Alonso values his work rate at getting up and down the pitch.

It is all a far cry from as recently as March when a giant mural (since gone) of Estêvão appeared on the side of a building outside Stamford Bridge and it seemed he, rather than Palmer – who was struggling – or Pedro, would be Chelsea’s poster boy.

Chelsea have maintained that Estêvão remains one of the club’s “untouchables” and is certainly one of the faces of the club’s global brand.

There are suggestions that Chelsea are looking to improve a contract that already runs into the 2030s and they want to keep him. However if his lack of game-time continues that may become a harder negotiation and the resolve might be tested.

Estêvão quickly became a fans favourite at Stamford Bridge – not least with his fine individual goal, in the Champions League, in the 3-0 trouncing of Barcelona under Enzo Maresca last November. Estêvão showed why he was nicknamed “Messinho” at the start of his career with the quality of that goal.

Young players have peaks and troughs and Estêvão is still a teenager. But patience is wearing thin back in Brazil while Chelsea fans have also been left frustrated. They do not want Estêvão’s name added to that list of De Bruyne, Salah and Lukaku.