Confused and Confusing Ryan Sessegnon No-Show a Reminder of Why He Needs to Escape Fulham Hell

Y'know when you're a kid – big enough to be walking around but not really big enough to know what's happening, ever – and you get lost in Tesco? The big Tesco, not a little Express or something? 

There's that crystallised thought: I don't know where I am, and I don't know how I got here, but I wish I wasn't and I don't know what to do about it. I am, to quote a popular American stand-up, very small and I have no money, so you can imagine the kind of stress that I am under.

Anyway, Ryan Sessegnon played on the right wing for Fulham against Cardiff on Saturday, having already started league games at left-back, wing-back, left-midfield, left-wing and up front for the Cottagers this season. 

This was his 24th start of the campaign, under a third manager, in a new league. And he's 18. And six of the players who started with him on Saturday weren't in the squad last season.

You can see where this is going, right? 

Justin Setterfield/GettyImages

Ryan Sessegnon is very small, and he's lost in the supermarket that Fulham's ownership went full Supermarket Sweep in last summer. 

As part of a front three featuring Aleksandar Mitrovic (huge) and Ryan Babel (way bigger than you'd expect, seriously), Sessegnon looked like everything was too big for him. The opponents, the occasion – basically everything but his shirt. He looked completely out of place. 

But...of course he looks out of place. He doesn't have a place in this Fulham team. The way he's been treated this season would've crippled the campaign of a seasoned veteran, never mind a teenager playing his first year of top flight football. 

He's been in the team, and out of the team. He's played for the manager who trusted him to play a leading role in a promotion battle, and he's played for Premier League-winning Claudio Ranieri – who didn't trust him at all. Now he's playing for Scott Parker.

When Sessegnon stayed put over the summer and didn't look to force a move to a club like Tottenham or United, it was the smart play. The sensible option. Stay, get the playing time in a system that you know, for a club who know you. Then Fulham spent the last year blowing all of that goodwill, and stunted the growth of the one transcendent talent they have. 

His contract ends next summer, although there is some talk of the club having an extension option built in. This time, there's no reason for him to hesitate. They've messed him around for nine months and, however much the fans love him, he can't risk that happening again. 

Get out while you can.