Everton target Champions League winner who’s available for £8m

Everton are reportedly in the running to sign Chelsea’s Callum Hudson-Odoi.

The 22-year-old has suffered an adverse career trajectory since breaking through into the Chelsea first team as an 18-year-old and now finds himself surplus to requirements.

Last season saw him spent the year on loan at Bayer Leverkusen, where a combination of injuries and a poor adaption spell saw him start just seven games in the Bundesliga.

He managed just one goal and one assist under Xabi Alonso, but ultimately, the loan spell hasn’t convinced Chelsea to bring him back into the first-team fold and a move away is now on the cards.

According to The Evening Standard, Fulham face renewed competition for Chelsea winger Hudson-Odoi after Everton and Nottingham Forest entered the race to sign the winger.

He has verbally agreed terms over a move to Fulham and he is reportedly willing to take a significant pay cut to leave Stamford Bridge. The two teams are haggling over the fee and wages and Forest and Everton may sense an opportunity.

Hudson-Odoi played 126 times for his boyhood club Chelsea, netting 16 goals and 22 assists as he was part of the squad’s that won the Champions League, Europa League, FIFA Club World Cup, Super Cup and the FA Cup.

His best seasons came in his breakthrough year under Maurizio Sarri when he bagged four goals in nine games in the Europa League. He also benefitted from Chelsea’s transfer ban which allowed him to feature reguarly for Frank Lampard and then in the early phases of Thomas Tuchel’s reign.

One issue is that he has suffered two Achilles tendon issues across his career to date, but he only missed six games through injury last season and is ready to make an impact back in England.

Available to play off either flank, he even played down the centre under Alonso but it’s certainly not a natural fit.

He thrived off the left for Chelsea cutting in and creating and being direct, but his end product is what saw him struggle to hold down a regular place as multi-million pound players were continously brought into his side.