Chelsea loan star wins major award after INCREDIBLE February form

Cameron Smith

• Updated: 8 Mar 2024 11:09 GMT
• 5 min read

Chelsea loanee Omari Hutchinson has won the Championship’s Player of the Month award for February after an incredible run of form at Ipswich Town.

The 20-year-old scored three goals and provided two assists in six league games during February, and fought off competition from Ilya Gruev, Josh Sargent and Ike Ugbo to win the award.

Incredibly, all three of Hutchinson’s goals in the month came in second-half stoppage time, with the on-loan Chelsea star stepping up when it mattered most.

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His first goal of the month was a 93rd minute equaliser against West Bromwich Albion, his second was a 95th minute winner against Rotherham United and his third was a 92nd minute strike to seal a 3-1 victory over Birmingham City.

However, despite winning this award, Hutchinson didn’t start two consecutive games until November and his appearance in the starting XI against Bristol City in midweek was the first time in which he’d started three games on the bounce since joining Ipswich last summer.

The young winger has been forced to bide his time under Kieran McKenna, with the majority of his minutes coming as a substitute. However, this has worked out perfectly for Hutchinson, who has been able to adapt slowly to senior football and become an integral member of Ipswich’s promotion-chasing side.

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Omari Hutchinson: Chelsea’s best loanee?

Chelsea’s loanees have endured mixed fortunes so far this season, and Hutchinson is certainly one of the better performing players.

Romelu Lukaku has also fared well at AS Roma, while Harvey Vale and Bashir Humphreys have performed well in the EFL.

However, Angelo Gabriel and Diego Moreira haven’t delivered much in Ligue 1, with the latter now recalled, Kepa Arrizabalaga has been usurped by Andriy Lunin at Real Madrid, and Andrey Santos was completely on the sidelines at Nottingham Forest and has barely played for Strasbourg too.

As a result, Hutchinson is one of very few shining lights from a Chelsea loan perspective and the Blues will likely hope Ipswich achieve promotion in order to loan the 20-year-old back to Portman Road next year.

With most of Chelsea's EFL loanees performing well, the west London club would be wise to utilise that avenue rather than send their youngsters to clubs with higher ambitions (Santos at Nottingham Forest or David Datro Fofana at Union Berlin).

What has Omari Hutchinson said?

“I’m very happy, this is my first award in men’s football so I’m grateful,” Hutchinson told Ipswich’s official club website after winning the award.

“There’s a lot of players that could have won it, a lot of top talent but I was happy to be chosen.

“Everyone has helped me on the journey. This is my first season in men’s football, so I didn’t know what to expect. I think this season so far has been successful and to be playing in front of the Ipswich fans week in and week out is a dream come true.

"The boss [McKenna] has helped my game massively. Just getting to know me as a person, I think that’s important. He’s always checking up on me and my family, seeing what I’ve done during the week as well as my work on the pitch by improving things with me and covering stuff that needs to be worked on.

“It’s always just the next game for us. This group are experienced from last season and they know what it takes. For me, it’s game by game, you can’t get complacent until the job is finished.”