No Raphinha or Dembele at Chelsea should see Hudson-Odoi given chance

James Shearman

Updated: 3 Jul 2022 13:09 BST
3 min read

Hudson-Odoi for Chelsea, 2021/22 — © ProShots

Chelsea have failed to sign Raphinha and Ousmane Dembele this summer, both at the hands of Barcelona.

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The other of Chelsea's key attacking targets is Raheem Sterling - which looks as though a deal will be completed in the coming days.

The Blues need more improvements than just Sterling, though. So, Thomas Tuchel is likely to get his fourth or fifth targets as well.

However, unless Chelsea are planning on breaking the bank for world-class players such as Serge Gnabry or Neymar, they should be looking at a certain player within the current setup instead.

That man is Callum Hudson-Odoi - the 21-year-old winger who was widely regarded as a better player than Jadon Sancho before the latter's move to Borussia Dortmund.

And that tells you everything you need to know about what Hudson-Odoi is lacking - gametime.

In fact, the youngster has started just 32 Premier League games in his entire career.

By comparison, fellow Cobham graduate Mason Mount has been crucial in all three of his seasons at Stamford Bridge (starting 91 times), and he's now one of England's most valuable players too.

Now or never for Hudson-Odoi

This season is important one for Hudson-Odoi, who is now entering his fifth season as a member of the Chelsea first-team squad, and remains yet to establish himself as a regular in the starting XI.

The 21-year-old simply has to ensure he's first-choice or at least in the conversation by the end of the 2022/23 campaign. If he doesn't, then he may never do so.

Radical idea – why not just give Callum keys to LW/RW position along with Raheem and actually give him a future at #CFC.
— Daniel Childs (@SonOfChelsea) July 3, 2022

Of course, competition for those attacking spots is always going to be tough at Chelsea, especially if Tuchel sticks with three centre-backs, but Hudson-Odoi needs to force his way into the German's thinking.

With Lukaku leaving, soon to be followed by Hakim Ziyech and potentially Timo Werner, this season could be Hudson-Odoi's best chance yet.

It's time that Hudson-Odoi displayed his obvious talent week-in, week-out, because he has the ability.