Despite initially being touted as a rising young star of the English game during stints at both Chelsea and Swansea, Fabio Borini has never seemingly been able to convert his once promising potential into something more meaningful. The Italian striker, who admittedly still only 23-years-old, is therefore starting to run out of time in today’s hastily impatient world of Premier League football.

Borini signed at Anfield under Brendan Rodgers back in the summer of 2012. A subsequently impressive loan spell at Sunderland last term, where the attacker scored seven goals in all competitions, shone the player in a particularly impressive light – but as things have publicly not gone well for Liverpool throughout the course of this season – the up-and-coming young Italian has been one of many Reds’ strikers to simply fail to do the business in 2014/15.

With Italian outfit Bologna FC, the club in which the no. 29 first started his youth career with, now seemingly calling chasing a return for their former talent – has Fabio Borini ultimately lost his chance to impress fans of English football and continue life as a Premier League player?

Whatever your opinion of the former Chelsea man, Borini does still have a somewhat untapped amount of potential that could yet see him blossom on these here shores. He may not be the most physically aggressive of strikers, a trait that has seemingly become a necessity to play successfully in the Premier League these days, but his turn of pace is often good, as well as his ability to link up successfully with his teammates.

[ad_pod id='ffc-video-small' align='left']

Borini is a technical sort of player. During his time at Swansea, the young Italian striker made a name for himself from set-pieces, while becoming one of Brendan Rodgers’ most trusted assets in the Swans’ triumphant journey to the top-flight of English football. He really did seem to be going places, and as a relatively successful time back in Italy with Serie A giants Roma somewhat proved, his subsequent move to Liverpool did in fact seem warranted at the time.

The potentially exciting Italian has seemingly failed to develop some key weaknesses within his game however. For all his passing ability and nice touch on the ball, Fabio Borini simply hasn’t proved to be an efficient enough goalscorer in the Premier League. Yes – his spell at the Stadium of Light certainly showed some promise in the forward, but as he has only amassed a mere single goal in all competitions this campaign, the former Chelsea youngster just hasn’t been efficient enough for Brendan Rodgers to rely upon this season.

While such a record doesn’t give the footballing community the best impression of Borini, perhaps his lack of goal-scoring form is a problem more endemic with Liverpool football club, than it is of the player himself. As both Rickie Lambert and Mario Balotelli have equally flattered to deceive this season, the former Swansea man - who has in fact been capped for the Italian national side during his brief career – may not be solely to blame for this season’s poor offering.

Liverpool therefore might not be the right club for Borini. Someone of his, albeit infrequent, talent hasn’t really proved to be the right fit for a club as ambitious as the Reds, but this simply doesn’t mean that his Premier League career should be altogether finished. A potential step down, in order to step back up, could represent a better option for the Italian – perhaps at a slightly smaller club like his former side Swansea.

As Garry Monk’s side have seemingly made no meaningful headway in re-signing their former talent however, a move back to Italy seems the only real chance left on the table for the potentially promising striker to rediscover his scoring boots. As Bologna currently languish in the undesired realms of Serie B however, unless guaranteed promotion back to the top-flight of the Italian football emerges for them next season, fans of the Premier League may soon be hard pushed to remember the name ‘Fabio Borini’ at all.

[ad_pod id='ricco' align='center']