Páez remains outside River Plate's first-team plans and is training separately in Argentina after his loan there was effectively cut short, with Chelsea yet to confirm where he will play next.
Michel Deller, the leading figure at Independiente del Valle, the club where Páez made his professional debut at 15, was direct when discussing the 19-year-old's situation.
"He made decisions that have complicated his life," Deller told El Intransigente.
"At this point in his life, it is up to him. He knows what he has to do. Opportunities are limited, not unlimited."
Deller added that he still hoped Páez could turn things around: "God willing, he matures so he can reach his best version."
Former Ecuador manager Sebastián Beccacece, who worked with Páez at international level and included him in this summer's World Cup squad despite his lack of regular club football, offered a similar diagnosis from a different angle.
"He is an extraordinary kid who, in training with us, always showed great commitment and intensity," Beccacece told Olé.
"He was one of the players who ran the most, the first to train and the last to leave. At national-team level, in terms of the numbers and commitment, he has been remarkable." But he added: "He has played few minutes at his clubs and that is not good for a footballer because he needs the day-to-day work.
"He still hasn't been able to explode. He will have to look internally at why, in the day-to-day work, he cannot find those spaces that allow him to show himself. There is something he will have to review and rethink in order to bring out the talent he has and showed at the beginning of his career."
Páez has yet to make a competitive appearance for Chelsea, with loan spells at Strasbourg and River Plate both failing to establish him as a regular starter.
Manager Xabi Alonso does not intend to use the midfielder this season, making a third loan the likely route, with KV Mechelen and Trabzonspor the two clubs most heavily linked, while Norwich City has also been discussed as an alternative.
Chelsea have yet to settle on a destination that guarantees the regular football Páez badly needs, with just over a week left before the transfer window closes.