Chelsea reaction to Callum Hudson-Odoi shows homegrown talent means more to fans than highly-paid superstars

When Callum Hudson-Odoi walked out at Stamford Bridge less than 24 hours after personally handing in a transfer request to Chelsea director Marina Granovskaia, he did not know what to expect. The 18-year-old feared mass boos, having made the difficult decision to make it clear to the club he did not believe he was getting enough first-team minutes and wanted to move to Bayern Munich.

Traditionally, players who hand in a transfer request to force through a move are resoundingly castigated should they appear in front of their current club’s fans before that move is granted, or the first time they return. And rightly so.

Yet the most striking aspect of Hudson-Odoi’s appearance and start against Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup fourth round was that he was not booed, at all. The Chelsea supporters’ feelings on the saga became even clearer when, having pulled off a sublime piece of control and skill before scoring to provide a reminder of what they will miss should he leave, they applauded him as he strolled around the pitch after the final whistle and held signs asking him to stay.

Hudson-Odoi is not to blame

Hudson-Odoi applauded back and it felt as though this was farewell to a club at which he has spent more than a decade developing through their academy. Another young fish slipping through Chelsea’s holey net.

But the majority of Chelsea’s supporters do not blame the winger. They blame Chelsea, a failing system and a club culture, formed by a succession of managers under pressure to deliver trophies each season, of distrusting academy products and not considering young English players good enough for the cause.

This issue goes beyond Chelsea, to the root of supporting a football club and what it means to real supporters to see one of their own — or perhaps even three, four or five of them — amongst the stars who, let’s face it, are only there because they are being paid hundreds of thousands of pounds each week.

One of their own

That is the dream of any real football fan. Not the fans from around the world; in Brazil or America or Nigeria or China or Australia. Not those fans who want to see the next hundred-million-pound player signed every transfer window. But the fans who work in the same region, grew up down the road from the training ground and breathed the same air for all those years as the player developed at their club.

The reason that Manchester United under Sir Alex Ferguson were so great is because they were built from the academy up. So what is it about the modern Premier League? Look at some of the players Barcelona grew and transitioned into the world’s best in their own ranks: Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta, Xavi, Sergio Busquets, Carles Puyol — they did not have to leave for Germany to get a game.

On Sunday evening, Ruben Loftus-Cheek came on for his 50th Chelsea appearance, but he is 23 years old and Hudson-Odoi is probably looking at his team-mate and thinking he does not want to wait another five years to play 33 more times in the first-team. This, like the past two or three seasons, was seen as Loftus-Cheek’s season, only for Maurizio Sarri to loan Mateo Kovacic, only one year his senior, ahead of him.

Manchester City have the same issue

The finger is pointed at Manchester City and Pep Guardiola, too, not only Chelsea. It isn’t enough for City supporters to see Phil Foden, one of the brightest young talents in the world, given a handful of starts and substitute appearance in meaningless matches, and it hurts them to lose Jadon Sancho to Borussia Dortmund then watch him star in the Bundesliga and the Champions League and called up for England, showing he could easily have done the same at City, if only he was trusted.

It doesn’t have to be every player in the starting eleven. Even one helps forge that relationship between the terraces and the training ground. At Liverpool they have Trent Alexander-Arnold who, having been given a chance by Jurgen Klopp, will become one of the world’s best full-backs provided he stays fit.

Tottenham Hotspur have Harry Kane and would Spurs supporters feel such an affinity to the England striker had they signed him for £60million from elsewhere? No, they wouldn’t. Go to any Spurs match and you’re reminded by the thousands that he is one of their own, at regular intervals throughout. They have Harry Winks emerging and Kyle Walker-Peters making an impression, and is it any wonder that, despite the lack of trophies, Spurs supporters and a lot of the neutrals still see Mauricio Pochettino as one of the best managers around?

Sancho’s success in Germany has made it far harder for managers to convince their young prospects that sitting on the bench and training with the first-team is in their best interests. His good friend Hudson-Odoi has taken note.