When it was announced that promising Chelsea youngster, Ethan Ampadu, would be playing under Julian Nagelsmann at RB Leipzig this season, Chelsea fans were excited about Ampadu’s development.
Only 18 at the time, Ampadu already had 12 first-team appearances for Chelsea under his name and had also displayed maturity beyond his years both on and off the field.
Regarded as one of Cobham’s best prospects, Ampadu rejected several offers from English clubs to make the move to Germany as the prospect of gaining experience in the Bundesliga and Champions League was too good to turn down. However, it is fair to say now, with the benefit of hindsight, that Ampadu chose wrong. As a result, it would seem that his development has stalled.
At Leipzig, Ampadu has only played seven games this season, completing a full 90 minutes just once in a Champions League game against Tottenham Hotspur. This is not to say that Ampadu has not developed and matured as a player this year. His manager has praised his attitude in training as well as his performances whenever he has played.
At Leipzig, Ampadu has been training alongside an extremely talented group of players who are battling for the Bundesliga title. But, the most important aspect of development for a young footballer is playing regularly, which was unfortunately not achieved.
Given the lack of playing time, Ampadu will already have his sights set on his Chelsea return this summer, where he and the Club will have another difficult decision to make regarding his future. Ampadu is a player who is too good to be left on the bench regularly, for the sake of his development, and he is also not yet good enough to start regularly for Chelsea.
Logically, Chelsea should look to loan Ampadu out to a Premier League club where he will receive guaranteed minutes, and as of now, it seems likely that this will happen. Speaking to The Athletic, Ampadu confirmed that he is open to another loan move for the upcoming season, as regular game time remains his highest priority. Ampadu says that he and Chelsea boss Frank Lampard have been in contact and that they are both realistic about the opportunities that he will receive at Chelsea next season.
There are several Premier League clubs who would be interested in adding the versatile Welshman to their squad next season. West Ham, in particular, would benefit from adding Ampadu to their squad as he can be an option in defense as well as a near perfect replacement for the dynamic Declan Rice, should the Hammers be forced into a sale this summer.
Ampadu was described by his Wales National Team Manager, Ryan Giggs, as “a future leader”. He was also set to be an integral part of the Wales squad at the now postponed Euro 2020. The comfort with which he can slot into a defensive midfield role just as easily as into central defense is what sets him apart from other promising talents of his age.
Ampadu possesses a great ability to read the game, a wide passing range, and composure on the ball that is rare for someone so young. The inherent question then is that if Ampadu is so good, why did he rarely feature for Leipzig?
Unfortunately for Ampadu, Leipzig have two well known young Centre-Backs in Dayot Upamecano and Lukas Klostermann as well as team captain Willi Orban . This made him fourth in the pecking order of central defenders. With Leipzig performing well throughout the season and challenging for the Bundesliga, Nagelsmann has rarely made changes to the backline. Despite training hard and performing well when called upon, Ampadu failed to break into the starting XI, which is another experience he would have learned from this season.
Ampadu claims that he does not regret his loan move to Leipzig and that he has learned from his experiences abroad. However, both Chelsea and he need to ensure that his learning is done through regular experience in his next loan spell. He would improve almost every midtable and lower level team in the Premier League with his flexibility to play in midfield as well as in defense.
Given the number of clubs that were interested last summer, it will be interesting to see which project he accepts.