Callum Hudson-Odoi has 18 months left on his contract. The club has offered him a new deal, but he is in no hurry to commit to the life of a Chelsea loan-warrior. The latest rumours show he might have bigger plans for himself.
Ever since Chelsea lost the only person who understood the footballing side of things at the club, they have been on a spree of bad decisions. Be it expensive mistakes in player recruitment or in managing the transition of academy players to the first team, it has been appalling. It’s almost as if they are missing a coherent strategy for what they plan to do in the coming years. And they might be about to pay a heavy price for that.
Callum Hudson-Odoi is the darling of ChelsTwit and the savior of the Chelsea academy. The 18-year old has stormed through the youth ranks and has been knocking on the door of the first team for quite a while now. Unfortunately, meaningful game time has eluded the youngster. And now he might be in a position to take matters into his own hands.
Bayern Munich is the latest club rumored to be sniffing around the Chelsea academy’s latest crown jewel.They are prepared to put their money where their mouth is, to the tune of £20 million.
Now that’s a lot of money for an 18-year old, even in this day and age. But Hudson-Odoi is no ordinary 18-year old. Despite being considered “not ready” for the Premier League by Maurizio Sarri, his stock is at an all-time high, thanks to his exploits at youth level, the length of his contract, and Jadon Sancho – his England youth teammate – tearing up the Bundesliga.
On the surface, Hudson-Odoi may hardly see an improvement in his fortunes at Bayern. After all, he would have Kingsley Coman, Serge Gnabry, Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery ahead of him in the pecking order.
Wouldn’t he be better served staying at his boyhood club and fighting for his spot? If he is as talented as they say he is, he should have no trouble dislodging a spluttering Willian from the team. Fair enough, but how can he do that when he is not even in the squad for 80% of the games?
That brings us to Germany, where Bayern Munich has one of the most efficient and professional setups in Europe, managed by people who know football inside and out. Acquiring Callum Hudson-Odoi would be part of a well-crafted recruitment strategy, the likes of which Chelsea knew in the early days of Michael Emenalo. The much-maligned Emenalo oversaw the transfers of Romelu Lukaku, Mohamed Salah and Kevin De Bruyne to Chelsea. That the club basically gave them away is another matter for another time.
Bayern are building for the future and Hudson-Odoi could be a vital part of that future. Of the four wingers on Bayern’s books, Robben and Ribery are well into their 30s and out of contract at the end of this season. That leaves just Gnabry and Coman as the senior wide players. If Hudson-Odoi does move to Bayern, he would share minutes with those two and not just be a time-wasting substitute.
He would have a genuine opportunity to play for one of the biggest and most successful clubs in the world, a chance to play in the Champions League and at least one guaranteed senior trophy every year.
In contrast, he would see very little meaningful action at Chelsea and would probably spend a lot of time on loan at smaller teams for the next two years. Those teams usually have more pressing concerns than developing a youth prospect for someone else. He has already seen Pedro sign a new contract in the summer and watched Willian get undeserved chance after undeserved chance in the first half of the season. If that does not drive a person into the arms of despair, they should just sign a new contract and join the Chelsea loan army.
If you were in Hudson-Odoi’s place, what option would you choose? Auf Wiedersehen, obviously.
Unfortunately for Chelsea fans, the club also knows they are trapped in a corner with Hudson-Odoi. They can act like petulant children and force the youngster to see out his contract, thereby proving this club does not know how to handle its youth players. Or they can act like the businessmen they are, and sit down with Bayern Munich to get the most money out of his sale. And if they’re lucky, Bayern might allow them to insert a buy-back clause of about £150 million, because that is what an England international winger will cost in 2021.
Chelsea’s promises of game time have proved to be hollow once again, and the lack of planning for a talented academy player to move to the first team is simply unforgivable. If (when?) Hudson-Odoi leaves Chelsea, the club will only have itself to blame.