State of the youth revolution: Chelsea’s lost success stories
By Travis Tyler
Chelsea’s youth revolution is entering a phase now with winners, losers, and those that don’t know where they sit yet. What success stories have been lost?
The nature of revolutions is that even if you are on the side of the winner, there is no guarantee that you win in the aftermath. Even with Chelsea’s youth revolution, that is becoming the case.
Frank Lampard has been Chelsea manager for nearly a year and a half now. He came with a mandate to finally close the gap between the academy and the first team, the loan army and the first team. In that time, he has successful laid the ground work and proven that the pipeline exists. But now it is a new phase of the revolution, and that means different things for different players.
As with any revolution, those that look like winners at first can quickly find that not much has changed in the new regime. The reasons for this may not be clear but there is usually just enough to analyze. And, after all, it was always unlikely that every single youth player Chelsea brought through last season or this season would have made it. Most teams are lucky to bring in one or two players a year and Chelsea was looking at nearly six last season before that got whittled down. Unfortunately, Fikayo Tomori and Callum Hudson-Odoi appear to be on the wrong side of that cut. Both are players that should have been success stories, but for whatever reason, they appear lost to the revolution currently.
Hudson-Odoi’s is perhaps the most ironic given that he seemed to be a major part of the selection of Frank Lampard as manager. The English winger was Chelsea’s best player in the preseason of 2018, and the few appearances he got he was the best or near the best player as well. But Maurizio Sarri had no plans for him. He wasn’t in the 14 players he believed he could train in the first season. A Bayern Munich transfer request and a club order later, Hudson-Odoi found his way into the starting XI. Unfortunately, injury robbed him of the end of the season and much of the start of Lampard’s tenure.
It is worth noting that the injury he sustained is a big one that can alter careers. He wasn’t expected to really be up to speed last season. The Covid break offered him more time, but he still never truly recaptured his old magic. In appearances this season and last, he suddenly looked less a potential world star and more like a 20 year old with limited playing time. Despite this, he has still managed to contribute goals and assists around the fog.
For Tomori, several fine loans culminated in a loan to Lampard’s Derby County where he excelled. When Lampard joined Chelsea, Tomori wasn’t far behind. For the first half of the season, he was exceptional, minus the occasionally brain fart or two. Then January and 2020 came and seemingly overnight he was done. He could count on one hand his appearances in the second half of Lampard’s first season.
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He returned for Lampard year two eager to fight for his spot. Indeed, it appeared that the club was clearing the way for him. Antonio Rudiger was shopped out and loans were rejected for the Englishman. Nothing happened. Though Tomori made the bench afterwards, now Rudiger has usurped even that. Like Hudson-Odoi, he finds himself deeper and deeper on the depth chart for others.
The question for both has to be “what happened?”. Hudson-Odoi looked like the heir apparent to Eden Hazard for a while. At the start of last season, Tomori looked to be the rock to build the defense around for the next decade. Then for both all of that came crashing down.
The answer is no one really knows. The tabloids claim to know and they’ll point to several off field issues confirmed and unconfirmed, but the truth is it is mostly a mystery. Timo Werner and Mason Mount can play on the wing and Christian Pulisic can play right wing, but all are ideal in other locations too. Yet, they start of Hudson-Odoi. At worst, Tomori should be third choice centerback. Though Lampard doesn’t rotate that pair much anymore, now even Rudiger has pulled ahead of him in the depth chart.
Both of these players should have been success stories and they can be yet. Just as quickly as both seemingly fell out of favor, they could find themselves back in favor. If both become clear players in rotation during the winter or the back end of the season, all of this seems a bit overblown.
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But right now that isn’t their reality. Both were supposed to be key members of the youth revolution. At times, they were. Overall, however, they appear to have fallen down on the wrong side of it. At 20 and 22, they still have time to turn it around. It simply remains unknown as to whether or not they can.