The fate of Abdul Rahman Baba at Chelsea was wholly predictable.
The Ghana left-back moved to the Stamford Bridge giants on August 16 2015, signing after a superb campaign in the Bundesliga with Augsburg, yet on Tuesday -- just under a year after he moved to West London -- he was on his way again, signing for Schalke on a season-long loan deal.
It's a pattern that's been repeated time and time again with the Blues and young talent, with African prospects as affected as anyone by the club's policy of stockpiling bright players and then loaning them out across Europe before moving them on for good.
In fairness, Baba had more of an opportunity to impress than most.
He made 23 appearances in all competitions last season, of which 15 came in the league, but while he shone on occasion with his attacking verve, his defensive naivety was exposed as well and he struggled to find his feet during what was a truly miserable season for the Pensioners.
In truth, it was always going to be a big ask to unseat incumbent left-back Cesar Azpilicueta.
The Spain international, a more conservative player than Baba, is as dependable as they come, and even though the potential was there to move Azpilicueta over to his favoured right-back berth and make the Ghana international the first-choice on the left, the evergreen Branislav Ivanovic proved hard to unseat on the other flank.
Despite carrying the air of a seasoned veteran at times, Azpilicueta is still only 26, and after Filipe Luis -- an established Brazil international and a Liga BBVA winner -- failed to dislodge him and moved on from Stamford Bridge after one season, it was predictable that Baba would suffer a similar fate.
For the second year in a row, a left-back has left Stamford Bridge only a year after arriving, having wholly failed to make a case for a first-team berth.
Baba's not the first African to struggle to make an impact at Stamford Bridge.
The futures of the talented Christian Atsu and the precocious Victor Moses remain up in the air, while Mohamed Salah secured a permanent move away from London on Wednesday, moving to Roma after two and a half years -- and only six Premier League starts -- with the Blues.
While Salah can now look to the future, Baba's long-term future remains uncertain.
Kenneth Omeruo is another African player whose career trajectory has declined in recent seasons as a first-team place at Chelsea remains elusive.
The 22-year-old wowed the continent with his mature, composed displays in Nigeria's defence as the Super Eagles won the Africa Cup of Nations in 2013.
However, he's still to make a Premier League start with Chelsea (he joined the club in 2012) having been loaned out to ADO Den Haag, Middlesbrough and Kasimpasa in the intervening seasons.
Reportedly, he currently finds himself frozen out of Antonio Conte's first-team squad as the Italian coach beseeches Besiktas to buy the player outright rather than take him on loan.
It's an ignominious decline for a player of whom so much was once expected.
The same can be said -- to an even greater extent -- of Gael Kakuta.
The former prodigy moved from Lens when he was a teenager and was quickly identified by Didier Drogba as his 'protégé'.
Both players left the club last summer; Drogba, on the shoulders of his teammates, feted with a heroes' farewell, Kakuta, somewhat by the backdoor, leaving the club after six loan spells across Europe.
The 25-year-old Congolese wideman duly signed for Sevilla, made just two appearances and now plays in China with Hebei China Fortune.
The money's good, I'm sure, but it's not quite the future that had been predicted for a player who was once dubbed the 'Black Zidane'.
Hopefully, Baba will be too good to suffer a similar fate.
He knows the Bundesliga well, having shone with Augsburg and Greuther Furth, and, in Schalke, finds himself at a club which has a good recent record of nurturing promising talent.
Baba still has the potential to be the finest African left-back of his generation, although his premature Chelsea departure ought to serve as a cautionary tale for any other young African players who are seduced by the status and the glamour of playing for the West Londoners.