Chelsea’s Premier League wonder kid Callum Hudson-Odoi is reportedly on Aston Villa’s radar.
Is history repeating itself for Anwar El-Ghazi.
After bright starts to life at both Ajax and Lille, the winger quickly lost his form and tumbled down the pecking order. And it seems that something similar could be happening at Aston Villa.
El-Ghazi arrived at Villa Park on a season-long loan from Lille in August and made a positive impression, assisting a goal on his debut against Reading and scoring a week later against Sheffield United.
Since then, however, these moments of quality have been few and far between. The 23-year-old really struggled in the 2-1 defeat at Norwich City in late October and has not featured under Dean Smith since, even being left out of the match day squad for the 1-0 loss to QPR.
A report in the Birmingham Mail claiming that Aston Villa are fans of the highly-rated Chelsea winger Callum Hudson-Odoi looms large over the ineffective El-Ghazi.
The report says that Villa wanted Hudson-Odoi in the summer and, although there are other areas more in need of reinforcement, do not be surprised to see the 17-year-old linked again if El-Ghazi continues to flail.
Hudson-Odoi is yet to make a Premier League appearance for Chelsea under Maurizio Sarri but he thrilled in pre-season, particularly in a 1-1 draw with Arsenal as he ripped the Gunners’ defence to shreds with his pace and directness.
El-Ghazi needs to show that he can produce similar, game-changing performances because Dean Smith will know that he needs to be ruthless to turn around this underachieving side.
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