Chelsea have now confirmed that Frank Lampard will be the caretaker manager until the end of the season, a decision which may boost Noni Madueke's hopes of becoming a regular at Stamford Bridge.
Does Madueke deserve to start?
Despite the plethora of wingers already at the club, Todd Boehly spent £29m to bring the England U21 international to Stamford Bridge in the January transfer window, but he struggled for regular game time under Graham Potter.
The former Tottenham Hotspur youngster had caught the eye in the Netherlands with PSV Eindhoven, contributing an impressive 20 goals and 14 assists in just 80 appearances for the Eredivisie side, so it is easy to see why Boehly wanted to bring the promising youngster in, given his preference for 'wonderkid' signings in his time at Stamford Bridge.
However, the youngster has so far been unable to replicate the form he showed with PSV, with no goals or assists in any of his five Premier League appearances this term, although only two of those have been starts.
He did show his class during the international break, scoring once and assisting twice in England U21s' 4-0 win over France U21s, which led manager Lee Carsley to urge Chelsea to utilise him more often.
He said: “He is exciting, fast, direct, and very versatile but what we have to remember is he is still young.
“He is going to need time, match minutes, the time to work on his game, but he has high potential. Like a lot of the younger players, he just needs an opportunity.
“They need opportunities to show that talent and given a run of games he will be fine.”
Madueke, who has previously been described as a "mentality monster" by his coach Saul Isaksson-Hurst, managed just six minutes of action for Chelsea in March and was left on the bench again for the stalemate against Liverpool in midweek.
Fortunately for the 21-year-old, his fortunes may be about to change following Lampard's appointment, as the 44-year-old's previous spell at the club saw him regularly put his faith in the best prospects on offer at Stamford Bridge, with Mason Mount and Reece James the most notable examples of academy graduates who became key first-team players.
Although there was a transfer ban in place at the time, Lampard still gave 12,545 minutes to players aged 21 or younger in the Premier League during his first spell, which was more than any other club over the same period.
Given that the other wingers in Chelsea's squad, notably Hakim Ziyech, Christian Pulisic and Mykhailo Mudryk have all failed to deliver so far this season – scoring a combined haul of one goal for the Blues – Madueke could finally get an extended run in the side under the new caretaker manager.