Spending creates its own problems. For Frank Lampard, one came last week. Callum Hudson-Odoi had scored a well-taken goal in Rennes, his second strike in as many Champions League games. Lampard had picked his team to face Tottenham. Hudson-Odoi was not in it. Nor, indeed, was he on the bench.
“It was difficult to tell him as his attitude has been bang on,” said the Chelsea manager. “And that's reflected in scoring against Rennes and coming on and doing well against Newcastle.”
But Hudson-Odoi, a player of such promise that Bayern Munich have tried to sign him in three separate transfer windows and that Hansi Flick has called him “one of the greatest talents in that position”, was in effect Chelsea’s seventh-choice forward.
All of which called for diplomacy. “I did speak to him personally, because I wanted him to understand where he's at at the minute, which is that he's getting better for me,” Lampard said. “If I am taking someone out of the squad who deserves to be in it, I have to be straight and honest with them.
"The main thing is I want him to stay positive, and that's part of my job as well, to have that communication. He took it very well and it is not an easy conversation to have.”
Hudson-Odoi’s is a rare situation; his is the plight of a player with huge potential at a club who are Europe’s biggest spenders this summer and coveted by the continent’s preeminent team.
Bayern had tried to buy him in January 2019 when Maurizio Sarri did not seem convinced of his quality, and again the following summer. They renewed their interest with a loan bid this year as they looked for a replacement for Philippe Coutinho and Ivan Perisic.
Hudson-Odoi may have been on the bench in Bavaria. Instead, he was in the stands on Sunday. Timo Werner, Tammy Abraham and Hakim Ziyech were Lampard’s front three, Christian Pulisic, Olivier Giroud and Kai Havertz the trio in reserve.
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Rennes 1 Chelsea 2: player ratings
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Ziyech’s stellar start to life at Stamford Bridge has made him the first choice on the right. Pulisic is probably happiest on the left, while Werner can also play there. Injury interrupted Hudson-Odoi’s season last year, before Chelsea spent £220 million ($293.7m).
Highly rated as he is, he has only started 12 league games in his career. Lampard is not thinking that omitting him could drive him toward the exit. “I am not worried about the noise around it or what the permutations might mean down the line,” he said.
One permutation will change on Wednesday. Chelsea visit Sevilla, with both clubs having booked a place in the last 16 of the Champions League but competing to top the group. Lampard will rotate. This time the awkward conversation will not be with Hudson-Odoi.
“He will get his opportunities,” he said. “He will get minutes [in Seville]. It is up to him then to show when he plays that he deserves to start. I want to see more of the same from him and to keep the progression going.”
Lampard was a prospect who gravitated to the ranks of the automatic choices. The challenge for Hudson-Odoi is to do likewise.
“I can relate to that as we all have steps on the ladder,” the Chelsea manager said. “He is still a young man so unfortunately for him, I have to see the bigger picture.” And the bigger picture is that, in an age of supersized squads, Hudson-Odoi was not the only one to miss out on Sunday’s glamour game.
“Tottenham had [Gareth] Bale on the bench and Dele Alli wasn't there,” Lampard noted. Like him, Jose Mourinho had made difficult decisions.
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Chelsea 0 Spurs 0: player ratings
