Frank Lampard has promised Chelsea fans will see more of Callum Hudson-Odoi’s ability over the course of the season.
Once again, the 19-year-old has been subject to transfer news ahead of deadline day, with Bayern Munich making moves to sign him before the window slams shut on Monday evening.
The Champions League winners made a loan offer on Saturday night to the Blues, with an option to buy in 2021 of £70million.
However, the deal has been rejected by Chelsea and the Blues are set to bat away any more interest in the England international.
Hudson-Odoi started his first Premier League game of the campaign on Saturday in the 4-0 rout of Crystal Palace at Stamford Bridge.
With the signings of Kai Havertz, Timo Werner and Hakim Ziyech, the young winger is in a real battle to get regular game time.
But Lampard believes the true ability of Hudson-Odoi will come to the fore this season.
“Callum’s natural ability on the ball, taking people on the outside and what he can do, those are going to keep coming out the more he keeps developing,” Lampard said.
“The way he trains, and if he builds confidence and he needs to know that I am behind him in that sense because he can give a lot, then we are going to see a lot more from Callum.
“We have to remember as well, he had a very difficult injury to deal with at a very young age.
“It is not easy to to come over that when you are a player with such pace and trickery in your nature. I think this season Callum can offer a lot for us in those terms because of his ability.”
One of the ways that Lampard has tried to push the young winger is on the defensive side of his game.
The Blues boss wants his wingers to be pressing high up the pitch off the ball, putting the opposition defence under pressure and win the ball back quickly.
One of the key men for Lampard last season in doing that was Willian, who left for Arsenal in the summer.
And the Blues manager admits that he would like to see Hudson-Odoi to do that even more as he develops.
“I don’t want to really compare him to Willian," Lampard added. "They both have attributes which are not all similar.
"I do think with Callum, his work off the ball is something that I am very strong in trying to improve because I think it is something that, at this level, in the Premier League you see how we were last year and Willian, a lot of the time, was the first trigger of us winning the ball back in how much ground he covered in high areas at high speed off the ball.
"Wingers have to have that mindset these days and that is something I have to put on Callum and something he has to improve on. In little bits today [against Palace] he did that and he can do even better more of it."
