MY ACCOUNT
Callum Hudson-Odoi is happy to be playing with a smile on his face once again at loan club Bayer Leverkusen after feeling left with little choice but to leave Chelsea.
The 21-year-old moved to Leverkusen in August for the duration of the 2022-23 campaign after making just 11 Premier League starts under Thomas Tuchel last season.
Hudson-Odoi has already started eight matches for Leverkusen in the Bundesliga and Champions League, operating predominantly as a left-sided attacker.
That is the three-cap England international’s preferred position, though he often found himself filling in as a wing-back last term in a move that ultimately left him disillusioned.
“You’re not a natural-born wing-back, are you?” Hudson-Odoi reflected on a conversation he held with Tuchel, who has since been replaced by Graham Potter.
“Definitely not! 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.”
Hudson-Odoi added in his interview with The Athletic his comments were not intended as a criticism of Tuchel, but more a frustration of his past couple of seasons at Chelsea.
“With so many great players in the team, you have to fight for your position and work your hardest,” he said. “It was difficult but you have to get on with it and do what you can.
“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, I don’t like 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.”
Hudson-Odoi has yet to score in his 10 appearances for Leverkusen, though he has assisted one goal and only Moussa Diaby (21) has created more than his 15 chances.
Leverkusen are just one point above the Bundesliga relegation zone after a poor start to the campaign that saw Gerardo Seoane replaced by Xabi Alonso.
Regardless of their disappointing form, Hudson-Odoi is glad to be playing more regular football in the German top flight.
“The results haven’t been the greatest but I think experience-wise, it’s been very good,” he said.
“I’m enjoying my football, smiling every day. And the boys have helped me settle in quick. I feel at home here.”
