Callum Hudson-Odoi has opened up on his move away from Chelsea once more.
The 21-year-old has already been public as to why he chose to leave his boyhood club on loan this season, and that alone tells its own story. At Chelsea, he was a pawn on a chessboard that was far bigger and much more complicated than he had ever imagined.
He was the starlet of the academy, but he couldn't get through to Maurizio Sarri that actually, he offered just as much promise as a 31-year-old Pedro. He was slightly before his time. Hudson-Odoi's Chelsea debut came in 2018 for Antonio Conte, his reluctance to use youth ended with Ruben Loftus-Cheek's brief appearances, Nathaniel Chalobah on occasion and selling Jeremie Boga.
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Had Hudson-Odoi been your average 18-year-old when Frank Lampard took over, then maybe things would have been different, he could have grown into the club, and the first team like Mason Mount, Fikayo Tomori and Tammy Abraham did. Hudson-Odoi's curse was the blessing that gave him a debut at two months after he turned 17. He was too good, and maybe it was all too much.
In a very muddled time at Chelsea between pragmatic managers, registas, transfer bans and culture wars, Hudson-Odoi just sat there below it all, watching with incredulity. He was Rodney Copperbottom waiting at the entrance to the big city and Bigweld Industries.
Now he's still just 21. He's younger than Antony, five years younger than Anthony Martial, three younger than Marcus Rashford, and one year younger than Jadon Sancho. He's had high expectations and pressure with little game time for four seasons, and maybe this is why he had to leave.
Since making his debut at Chelsea, Sancho has left Manchester City, made his name in Germany, and become England's best young talent. Phil Foden has been discovered and taken over that accolade, won four titles, Sancho has moved to Manchester United and been declared a flop, whilst Jude Bellingham is now the best player since Paul Gascoigne captaining Dortmund at the age of 19. Hudson-Odoi has scored just six league goals.
A lot has happened, but not enough has happened for him. £70m rejected at 18 years old? How are humans meant to respond? He has watched people he was ahead of overtake him and lap him in the football world, and that's why he left over the summer.
"You look at the players you've played with throughout the years, and you say to yourself, 'They've done it in the league as well. They're doing really well. So I thought, I'll come over here and give it a shot," Hudson-Odoi told The Athletic.
Thomas Tuchel gave him an unexpected chance at wing-back, but then injuries, form, and the German's overreliance on experience meant Hudson-Odoi was again peripheral to everything important going on. He won the Champions League aged 19, but by that point in the season, he'd already lost his place in the team.
Over the summer, it became clear he wasn't going to be part of Tuchel's plans despite working overtime to get fit and recover from injury. He was left out of the squad on the first day of the season and admitted, "My mindset was, 'I have to get out of there.'
"Not in a rude way, as in I don't like the club or I don't want to be at the club, nothing like that. But I needed to play football somewhere new. Start afresh. Try the best I can wherever I am. And then go back to Chelsea at the end of the loan."
His chances were limited to wing-back and sporadic minutes as a forward, not the way he wanted it to be as a player that was an exciting, creative dribbler in the No.10 role for much of his youth. When asked if he was 'was much of a wing-back' Hudson-Odoi replied: "Definitely not," he says, laughing. "At times, it was okay. But sometimes, in my head, I'm thinking, 'What am I doing? Why am I in this position? I'm more defending than attacking'.
"No matter where I was playing, I was always trying to do my best and help the team — it's not always about myself. I never argued; I just got on with it. But in order to get the best out of yourself, you have to play where you can feel most comfortable and do what you can do best."
He made 46 appearances under Tuchel, scoring three and assisting eight. Below those numbers, though were just 18 league starts - they brought about one goal and five assists alone. He started 32 games across the 18 months, but 14 of those were cup matches and over half of all his games were as a wing-back.
Maybe Tuchel profiled him wrong or just wasn't willing to trust him as a forward. "I would never bad mouth or say anything bad about him," he says of the German. "He was always a good guy, a good man, on the pitch and off the pitch. It was just… with so many great players in the team, you have to obviously fight for your position and work your hardest. It was definitely difficult at times with him, but you have to get on with it and do what you can."
With Graham Potter in charge, the chances of a Stamford Bridge return look likely next year. He's gained a level of confidence through playing as a Champions League starter that he hasn't been afforded for a long time at SW6, and it's resulted in hearing more from him as a person.
Hudson-Odoi was rarely the talking point as a Chelsea player, but he's already experiencing the boost in Germany that many youngsters have had. If that continues, then there may still be a way to forge a career in blue.
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