Callum Hudson-Odoi’s injury presents an opening for Chelsea and Hudson-Odoi to restart contract negotiations. Chelsea should be diligent not to give the appearance of taking advantage of Hudson-Odoi’s misfortune.
Callum Hudson-Odoi will need the entire summer to reach the point where he can train at full capacity with the squad and work his way back into the first team and the best XI. He will then need at least all of next season to re-establish himself as one of the world’s best young wingers. His contract with Chelsea will expire before teams like Bayern Munich are again interested in signing him.
Hudson-Odoi’s injury up-ends his contract negotiations. Bayern Munich’s interest in January forced Chelsea to take action to protect him, most notably by pushing Maurizio Sarri to include Hudson-Odoi in his regular rotation. The Blues were heading into the summer faced with the prospect of either selling one of their top prospects in the same summer in which they could lose Eden Hazard while being under a transfer ban, or lose the young Englishman on a free transfer the following summer.
Now all the leverage is with the club. They will not be fending off any more transfer offers, and they are at a minimal risk of losing Hudson-Odoi next summer. The clubs who could lure Hudson-Odoi will not sign a player until after he has re-proven himself post-injury. Ironically, one of the only top clubs who would sign a player on the heels of a major surgery is Chelsea FC (see: Drinkwater, Daniel; Palmieri, Emerson; Barkley, Ross, et al).
Hudson-Odoi’s best option for long-term security is to sign the contract Chelsea wanted him to sign in January when Bayern were circling. Hudson-Odoi knows this and Chelsea knows this. To their credit, Chelsea appear to be offering him the same contract terms from January. They are not reducing the terms based on either his injury or the change in leverage.
That is as it should be, and is a welcome bit of decency from the club. Now the club must be sure they receive the proper benefit from it.
Chelsea should do everything they can through their media relations team to disconnect Hudson-Odoi’s injury from the contract negotiations and extension. Every communication coming out of Stamford Bridge should hammer home the idea that this contract is no less than Hudson-Odoi deserves, that they would have done it anyway and that Hudson-Odoi will continue to be a part of the Blue family for another five years just as he has been for the last decade.
Neither the player nor the club should let this come across as though the injury were the main driver of the new contract, even if it is. Chelsea should not gloat about their magnanimity in standing by their fallen winger. They should not make it sound like they are taking care of a wounded bird or giving alms to a charity case. They are re-signing one of the Academy’s top graduates who is well on his way to becoming one of the Premier League’s most exciting players. This is not a chance to say “Chelsea cares,” but the even rarer chance to say “Chelsea knows how to do good football business.”
Hudson-Odoi, for his part, should talk about how this is what he wanted all along and he is happy to finally reach the right terms with the only club he has ever known.
If Chelsea can avoid looking like they are taking advantage of Callum Hudson-Odoi they can notch a double victory: securing a player they want on favourable terms and earning a PR boost in the process.
Then it will all be up to next season’s coach to make it look like this was all part of the plan, and the injury was just a freak, unfortunate coincidence.