If you were Callum Hudson-Odoi you’d probably do the same.
Chelsea’s 21-year-old winger has clearly had enough of waiting for his chance and is off on loan to Bayer Leverkusen. He must wish he could turn the clock back. Three years ago, the club offered him a new, five-year deal with a substantial increase on his wages to £120,000 a week.
It had come nine months after he’d handed in a transfer request in a bid to force a move to Bayern Munich, no less. The German champions had made multiple approaches to sign him as a long-term successor to Kingsley Coman. Hudson-Odoi wanted to go.
He’d grown fed up at watching games from the bench under then-Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri. But the Blues threw money at him and the willingness of Sarri’s successor, Frank Lampard, to field young players encouraged Hudson-Odoi even further to stay. Where doors opened up for academy kids such as Mason Mount, Reece James, Tammy Abraham and Billy Gilmour, however, they appear to be closing again.
Hudson-Odoi has had to watch Chelsea sign four-time title winner Raheem Sterling from Manchester City. Hudson-Odoi managed just 15 Premier League games last season and is yet to play a minute during the current campaign. Even more remarkably, the Blues are so desperate to sign Everton winger Anthony Gordon - who is the same age as Hudson-Odoi - they are prepared to offer a package in excess of £60million for him. No wonder he wants to go to Leverkusen.
He’s clearly had enough. You have to wonder too about the message being sent out to Chelsea’s other young academy talents.
Striker Abraham saw the writing on the wall as Chelsea moved for £100million Romelu Lukaku last year and moved to Roma where he has scored goals for fun under Jose Mourinho. Gilmour and Ampadu have gone from exciting young Blues talents to not having a shirt number this current campaign.
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Gilmour was with the Under-23 side for pre-season. At least he has attracted interest from Everton. Wales international Ampadu could head back to Italy on loan after spending last season at Venezia. What must stick in the craw for them both is that Chelsea are instead turning to teenage talents from outside the club. Eighteen-year-old midfielder Carney Chukwuemeka, who has joined for £20 million from Aston Villa, will wear No.30.
Fair enough, 18-year-old midfielder Omari Hutchinson started his career at Chelsea as a boy, so you can see why they’d want him back. Nineteen-year-old Cesare Casadei is seen as a long-term heir to both N’Golo Kante and Jorginho with the pair having entered the final year of their respective contracts. Eighteen-year-old keeper Gabriel Slonina is clearly talented but what do these acquisitions say to the youngsters already at the club?
To be fair to Chelsea, they would argue with some justification that they are building a squad - not a team - for the future. They’d also argue that at elite clubs the competition for places should be fierce. It shouldn’t be easy to walk into teams competing for top honours. The trouble is, the players left out in the cold have options elsewhere - just like Hudson-Odoi and Abraham.
They also have power. The power to show restraint and not be seduced by lucrative deals and promises that are almost always at the mercy of events. Bear in mind too that big clubs don’t always get it right. Kevin De Bruyne and Mohamed Salah, both forced to seek their respective fortunes away from Chelsea, would attest to that.
Hudson-Odoi leaves for Germany having learned valuable lessons in the three years since he signed that £120,000-a-week deal. You suspect his thinking might be slightly different when contract talks come back around again.
