Ethan Ampadu: The Championship is a better route back to Chelsea

Chelsea’s Ethan Ampadu seemingly has a career defining decision ahead of him. A loan to the Championship would be his best route back to the Blues.

Antonio Conte, who at the time was using youth more than almost any other Roman Abramovich era Chelsea manager despite what the false narrative says, loved Ethan Ampadu. This was a young player basically out of the depths of the Football League suddenly starting against Premier League opposition and holding his own. It seemed like the Blues had found a diamond in the rough.

Then Maurizio Sarri came with his own false narratives such as “he plays the youth when he doesn’t have to, Napoli just has a bad academy”. Ampadu was left to rot for nearly the entire season, though injuries did not help. A subsequent loan to RB Leipzig seemed like a good idea at the time, but Julian Nagelsmann stuck to the Red Bull 4-4-2 longer than many expected and by the time he switched to his own 3-5-2, Ampadu had been out injured too long to find a way in.

Frank Lampard considered keeping Ampadu around last season but decided he needed more playing time. That remains true this summer. With loans to both Fulham and Norwich in front of him, Ampadu will have a career defining decision ahead of him. He should choose the Championship side.

This may seem counter intuitive. After all, if Conte saw Ampadu as a Premier League level player and a loan to Leipzig seemed like a good idea, shouldn’t Ampadu be playing in the Premier League? That may have been true last season or the season before. But now Ampadu has gone nearly two years barely playing. Playing time is important, but so is the right kind at this point.

If Ampadu goes to Fulham, he may get twenty or more Premier League games. That would be great! But how many of those would he be good in? Fulham is likely to struggle next season, just like they did as they were relegated. Ampadu is already low on confidence, is getting smacked almost every week really the answer?

But in the Championship, especially at Norwich, Ampadu could be a star. Norwich is surely a promotion favorite and Ampadu can slot right in. Every match would be a confidence booster. He may also get upwards of 30, maybe 40 games in the second division.

As for whether that harms his overall development, look at all the Championship players Chelsea used this season. Mason Mount and Reece James slotted right in. Tammy Abraham and Fikayo Tomori did too, though in spurts rather than a steady stream.

Ampadu has shown he is a good player. But a mixture of bad luck and a poor manager has seen his last two seasons mostly wasted. Now is not the time to push him into another wasted loan. He must play next season and often to find his way back to Chelsea. His best way to do that is to take a slight step backwards to the Championship so he can move forward again.