As Emerson Palmieri prepares for first Chelsea start, here are 6 others who had to wait ages for their bow

He’s been at Chelsea since January but finally Emerson Palmieri will make his first start for the club this week.

The Blues take on Burnley in a rarely-seen Thursday night clash at Turf Moor and the 23-year-old left-back is set to start thanks to Marcos Alonso’s three-game ban for stamping on Southampton striker Shane Long on Saturday.

Since arriving from Roma for £17.5m in January Emerson has played just 15 minutes as a substitute but could now be in line for three stars with Chelsea facing Southampton in the FA Cup semi-final on Sunday.

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“Tomorrow Emerson will play,” said Antonio Conte on Thursday. “He’s ready in the physical and tactical aspect. I don’t know if he is ready to play two in three days. For sure he will play against Burnley.”

But he isn’t the first player to wait ages for his chance as these men will testify to…

Adrien Silva

The Portuguese midfielder signed for Leicester from Sporting on summer Deadline Day back in August last year but crucially whoever sent the paperwork from the Foxes did it 14 seconds past the deadline.

Employing impressive levels of pettiness, FIFA rejected the club’s application to register the player meaning he’d have to wait six months until January this year when he was finally allowed to be registered.

Displaying even stronger pettiness, Leicester then gave him the no.14 squad number. Well played, lads.

Jonathan Woodgate

Serially plagued by injuries throughout his career, Jonathan Woodgate’s high-profile £13.4m move to Real Madrid from Leeds in 2004 couldn’t have got off to a worse start.

He had to wait 13 months from August 2004 until September 2005 to actually make his debut due to an injury he had when the deal was complete, and when it came it was one to remember..for the wrong reasons.

He scored an own goal and to make things worse was later being sent off for a second bookable offence. Oops

Still it’s not as bad as the time he ‘starred’ in a YouTube advert for early bird Middlesbrough season tickets but introducing his “new bird” to his team-mates and it turning out to be a giant bald eagle.

Daniel Prodan

This one is an example as to why you should always undertake a medical for a new player (which seems obvious but it clearly wasn’t that obvious to Rangers back in 1998).

The Scottish giants paid £2.2m to Atletico Madrid to bring the defender, who had only spent one year in Madrid having come to prominence at Steaua Bucharest where he won five league titles in a row.

But a knee injury prevented him from making any starts for Rangers in two-and-a-half years where it was later revealed by Rangers’ doctor Stewart Hillis that no medical had been conducted, and the transfer was rushed to completion on the strength of falsified documents.

Rangers threatened to sue Atletico but backed down and eventually just released Prodan in January 2001. Sadly he died of a heart-attack in 2016 aged just 44.

Fernando Redondo

If you’re asking about bad first days at the office, consider Fernando Redondo. The Argentine playmaker didn’t even want to move to AC Milan in 2000 and had no involvement in negotiations but an £11m bid was accepted and he was off.

Real supporters gathered outside the Santiago Bernabeu to protest the transfer but there was little they, or Redondo – who stated that he wanted to stay in Spain – could do.

However, just three minutes into his very first treadmill session at Milanello he injured his knee and would not make his debut for the next two-and-a-half years.

To his credit, the midfielder suspended his £2.74m-a-year salary, and even tried to give back the house and car that his new employers had given him, although they turned him down. Eventually he recovered and helped the Rossoneri to win the 2003 Champions League in his first full season.

Jorgen Nielsen

Ready for the ultimate custard pie? Step forward Jorgen Nielsen. The Danish keeper was signed by Liverpool in 1997 from Hvidovre but left just under five years later having never made a first-team appearance.

But he came close. Oh so close. And it was the Merseyside Derby no less, back in 1999. Nielsen was on the bench for Gerard Houllier’s side at Anfield when the game sparked into life 13 minutes from time.

No.1 Sander Westerveld and Francis Jeffers were both sent off for fighting meaning Nielsen would surely had to play but Houllier had already used all of his subs so had to put let-back Steve Staunton in goal instead.

To add injury to insult Nielsen was ordered to give his shirt to Staunton for the rest of the match.

Matej Delac

And then there’s Matej Delac who, ridiculously, is Chelsea’s currently longest serving player despite having never made a first-team appearance since signing SEVEN years ago. Peak Chelsea.

The Croat signed for the Blues as a teenager in 2009 from Inter Zapresic in 2009 but like many youngsters who move to Stamford Bridge, has never made a first-team appearance.

He has been sent out on loan 10 times but has never officially been registered by the Premier League club due to work permit issues.

And it looks like he never will as the 25-year-old is out of contract in June and, according to The Sun on Sunday, is already looking for a new team.

“Soon will come a time I’ll have to leave Chelsea,” he said in November. “Many people ask me do I regret coming to Chelsea so young, and not joining some smaller club, but I feel no regret.

“Your career can always be better, but I am 25 and have been through so much, met many coaches, players, gained experience.

“The problem was not my quality, Chelsea believed in me, extended my contract several times, but the problem was always work permit.Chelsea had a plan for my career, but you can not plan some things.

“As I arrived, aged 18, it seemed like some movie, I can’t describe that feeling. I will remember the greatness of Chelsea FC, they raised me and taught me human and football manners.”