Paez joined Chelsea last summer but has never played a competitive minute for the club, with the Blues unable to find him a loan destination before the transfer window closed. Asked directly this week whether he planned to use the 19-year-old, Alonso was unambiguous.
"No, no. He is not part of the plans. At the moment, he is not part of the first team squad," he said.
The midfielder spent the first half of last season on loan at Strasbourg, making 21 appearances, before a temporary move to River Plate in January, where he featured 14 times and represented Ecuador once at this year's World Cup. That River Plate loan was cut short last month, leaving Paez back at Chelsea with no clear route into first-team contention.
According to The Athletic, the club's priority for now is simply to integrate him and work on raising his overall standards rather than push him towards regular football immediately.
Chelsea agreed a deal with Independiente del Valle worth £17.3 million for Paez back in 2023, when he was still too young to complete the move, and he only became eligible to join once he turned 18.
Since then, the teenager once considered one of the brightest talents in South American football has struggled to settle at any of his loan clubs, unable to establish himself as a regular starter at either Strasbourg or River Plate despite his undoubted natural talent.
His inability to secure a fresh loan this summer leaves him in an unusual position: a highly rated young international with no pathway to first-team football at his parent club and no alternative destination lined up either.
His situation adds to a congested midfield picture at Stamford Bridge, where Moises Caicedo has missed the last two matches with a calf injury, forcing Chelsea to finish their 2-1 defeat to Arsenal with Malo Gusto and Reece James as makeshift midfielders.
Caicedo is back in training, but the club will need him and Romeo Lavia to stay fit through to January if they are to avoid similar improvisation in central midfield.