Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel hopes Raheem Sterling can help Callum Hudson-Odoi fulfil his huge potential at Stamford Bridge - but has not ruled out the player leaving.
The winger is a target for the Blues’ Premier League rivals Newcastle and German outfit Borussia Dortmund. And if the price is right and Hudson-Odoi fancies a particular move then Tuchel is unlikely to block his exit.
However, the German is also happy for the 21-year-old to stay and show everyone exactly what he is capable of. Asked if Hudson-Odoi was for sale this summer, Tuchel said: “In general, nobody is for sale and everybody is for sale. It depends on what the player wants, how bad the players wants it, what we think, who is ready to pay a certain amount of money.
"Then, maybe, everybody is for sale. But for Callum, it’s the same. He competes. He had a long-term injury and long-term problems to overcome from which he suffered.
"He has still a way to go to live up to his potential, because the potential is huge. Having Raheem in can maybe give him the extra boost to step up and see life, what is needed in these kind of positions to reach the level that he can reach, that he wants to reach. But at the moment he is our player and he needs to fight, fight, fight.”
Another player who has to fight this season is Conor Gallagher, who impressed on loan at Crystal Palace last season. Tuchel added: “Conor fights in central midfield. To be very honest, it’s a tough fight for him because at the moment, as it seems, we only have two places in central midfield, which is a bit unfair given the number of players we have there. It’s not ideal, but we have to do what’s best for the squad, not what’s best for every individual.
"These thoughts are not 100 per cent, about the formation and how to use everybody ideally. But at the moment, he is absolutely fine.
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“He is first of all a fantastic guy and in the first weeks of training, he showed how much of a step he made by having so much playing time and how much of a personality on the pitch he became. Then it’s a very, very normal situation in development that, after some fantastic training sessions in the beginning, there’s a little dip in form, a dip in freshness, from which he suffers.
“On top, he has huge competition with N’Golo Kante, Jorginho and Mateo Kovacic, who are used to playing with each other. But this is life in a big club and a competitive club like Chelsea. He has everything to become a very important player over the next years at Chelsea.”
The fact Chelsea’s squad is still a work in progress means Tuchel is pleased there are still three weeks to go before the transfer window closes. But he is clear that in years when government sanctions haven’t led to the sale of his club, the window should be shut before the season starts.
He added: “What would maybe make more sense is to have everything finished and then the season starts. Then you know against whom you will compete because teams can be very, very different from the first game of the season until the fourth or fifth game, it can be a totally different squad.”
