Trust Pep Guardiola - Chelsea cannot afford to make costly £20m defender blunder

There aren't many hard and fast rules in football management, but as a general rule of thumb, if Pep Guardiola is eager to snatch one of your promising young prospects away before he has made any kind of notable impression on the first team picture, you can all but guarantee that said wunderkind is worth keeping around.

Such is the case with Ian Maatsen. The Chelsea full-back erupted into relative notoriety with an attention-grabbing turn on loan with Championship conquerors Burnley last season, which was followed, naturally, by a summer of intense speculation over his future. In the end, the Dutchman took the decision to stay at Stamford Bridge in an effort to jimmy his way into Mauricio Pochettino's starting XI, but has, for the most part, been unsuccessful in that endeavour.

Thus far, Maatsen has played just 107 minutes of Premier League football this season, and has been largely kept of the side by either Weird Al doppelganger Marc Cucurella, or Levi Colwill, who, if we're being frank, is not a left-back. Consequently, the 21-year-old's prospects at Stamford Bridge continue to look bleak.

But that doesn't mean that he is wholly unwanted. Alongside the claret and blue twosome (claret and bluesome?) of West Ham and former childminders Burnley, Maatsen has reportedly emerged as a target for Manchester City; as in the treble-winning champions of England and Europe, Manchester City. You might have heard of them.

Now, immediately, from an outside perspective, that gets the alarm bells jangling. What is it that Pep sees that Mauricio evidently does not? Think of it like two men before a chalkboard littered with complex equations that hold the secrets of splitting the atom and harnessing nuclear power. Those two men are Robert J. Oppenheimer and Mr. Blobby. To Blobby, that board is nothing more than a rat's nest of squiggles he could never even begin to fathom. To Oppenheimer, they reveal the pathway to Armageddon.

Maybe Pochettino doesn't know how to maximise Maatsen, but if the gossip-mongers are to be believed and Guardiola does genuinely want him, then it would suggest that the City manager trusts in his ability to turn the full-back into a world class talent.

For what it's worth, the player himself seems open to the prospect of moving to Manchester too. According to a report from Football Insider, Maatsen is 'very keen' to join City, and is happy to 'keep his options open' while frustrations over a lack of meaningful game time simmer. It was suggested over the summer that Chelsea valued the defender at around £20 million, although that figure may have gone up in the time since.

But all hope is not lost just yet. Football Insider go on to claim that despite the scarcity with which he is utilised, the Blues are still willing to offer Maatsen a long term contract that would extend his deal beyond its current expiration date of 2025. Whether the full-back can be placated with such an agreement remains to be seen, but if nothing else, it is encouraging that Chelsea see enough worth in him to at least try and keep him at Stamford Bridge.

Because mark my words, if they don't get the best out of Maatsen somebody else will. And that somebody might just be Pep-penheimer.