Callum Hudson-Odoi has much more to offer Chelsea than Kai Havertz

Callum Hudson-Odoi made his Premier League debut for Chelsea in January 2018 under the tutelage of Antonio Conte at 17 years old. The Blues had won the league the season before and were struggling at the time. Unfortunately, he didn’t find rhythm under Conte—not that he was expected to—ending the season with just two league appearances for a combined 14 minutes. Nevertheless, it was the beginning of something potentially magical. Hudson-Odoi was highly regarded by the Chelsea and football community as an uber-talented youngster. The winger, up until the beginning of the 2020/21 season, had only played 1,262 minutes of Premier League football in three seasons (the equivalent of 14 full games, out of an available 114) though.

Kai Havertz arrived at Chelsea at the beginning of the 2020/21 League season in a transfer that made him, at the time, the joint-most expensive Chelsea player ever. Havertz was 21 years old at the time and he was also highly regarded as a superbly talented young player. The German’s achievements made the rounds in the media, showing how good he already was, despite having not reached his prime. For the most part though, Havertz has been underwhelming, which leads to supporters drawing comparisons between the two young prospects.

Kai Havertz’s underwhelming return means Callum Hudson-Odoi has more to offer Chelsea right now, despite the German’s huge price tag

Hudson-Odoi only started really getting a look into Chelsea’s first team in the 2019/20 season and since then, he has shown the various things he’s capable of doing when on the left wing. He got injured in the 2019/20 season and was sadly out for a considerable number of months. Havertz played a lot under Frank Lampard and has played some under Thomas Tuchel, and while he has barely shown flashes of all the goodness the Chelsea faithful was promised, he has not shown nearly enough for anyone to even begin to justify the price paid for the youngster.

There’s been adulation for Havertz in the Chelsea fanbase recently, much of it more due to a dislike/hatred for Romelu Lukaku than anything else. Many Chelsea fans have expressed their desire to see the back to the Belgian marksman, but that is as likely to happen as it is for Chelsea to still win the league this season. The debate on Lukaku is very much still ongoing, with many fans insisting that Lukaku’s lack of goals are down to solely him. Meanwhile, there are some others who prefer to believe that the whole team is to blame for Lukaku’s lack of goals.

Anyone that has any idea of how football transfers and finances work would know that Chelsea will not be offloading Lukaku at any time in the next two years. This means Lukaku will play almost every time he’s fit. This leaves the variables in the Chelsea attack in the supporting cast: the attacking midfielders and wingers. As things stand, Hudson-Odoi has much more to offer Chelsea than Havertz. No, this isn’t just due to “recent form” either.

From the beginning of the 2020/21 season, Hudson-Odoi has been a lot more productive in a large number of categories than his German counterpart. Havertz has played 2,576 minutes of Premier League football, compared to Hudson-Odoi’s 2,018, since the beginning of the 2020/21 season. In that time, the English youngster has contributed more to Chelsea’s results than his German counterpart, in 558 fewer minutes. It should also be mentioned that both players have contracted and suffered from the effects of COVID-19 twice, but Havertz seemingly got the worst of it during his first season.