2M797Y9 Omari Giraud-Hutchinson #56 of Chelsea on the ball during the Emirates FA Cup Third Round match Manchester City vs Chelsea at Etihad Stadium, Manchester, United Kingdom, 8th January 2023 (Photo by Conor Molloy/News Images)
Chelsea’s thoughts on the Ipswich Town transfer decision could be ambivalent: See
Hutchinson has played in nearly every game this season, but he has struggled to get starts, which may annoy parent team Chelsea, who will undoubtedly want their 20-year-old to play as much football as possible.
It presents a challenging dilemma for the West London club.
Will Hutchinson be brought back and loaned to a team where he would start every week, or will he be allowed to contribute from the bench at Portman Road in a team that hopes to advance automatically?
Having only turned 20 in October, this is the attacking midfielder’s first loan and taste of senior football. One could argue that the young player would gain more from starting every game for a team that has nothing to play for than from starting from the bench in an excellent team that is trying to advance.
Chelsea wants to compete for hardware in the near future, after all. It seems sense to give one of their best players the opportunity to experience competing for a promotion and to taste success while he’s a member of a competitive, talented team.
Omari Hutchinson’s Ipswich Town career
Kieran McKenna, the manager of Ipswich, was clear that the team would need to bolster itself in the summer following their promotion to the Championship.
Hutchinson, a player for Chelsea, signed a season-long loan agreement in July, making him the club’s fourth summer acquisition and a major coup for the Tractor Boys.
| Ipswich Town summer signings 2023/24 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Name | Club signed from | Permanent/Loan |
| Jack Taylor | Peterborough United | Permanent |
| George Hirst | Leicester City | Permanent |
| Cieran Slicker | Manchester City | Permanent |
| Axel Tuanzebe | Manchester United | Permanent |
| Brandon Williams | Manchester City | Loan |
| Dane Scarlett | Tottenham | Loan |
| Omari Hutchinson | Chelsea | Loan |
Being able to play on both wings and as an attacking midfielder is essential, and he has proven to be versatile for Ipswich this season.
This season, he has appeared in almost every game for the team, though he has mostly done so from the bench. Still a vital component of McKenna’s schemes, he recently scored the team’s second league goal of the year in a 2-0 victory away to Middlesbrough.
Hutchinson is an essential member of Ipswich’s squad depth, and if the team can maintain its push for automatic promotion against teams like Southampton and Leeds United, they will need players like him throughout the season.
Hutchinson has a 59% successful dribble rate, a 73% passing accuracy rate, and four big chances this season, according to Sofascore.
The future of Omari Hutchinson at Ipswich Town
Chelsea is unlikely to recall Hutchinson, manager McKenna told the East Anglian Daily Times in November.
“He’s coming on really well,” he said.Being in such a focused, driven, and mature group has been a really good experience for him. He has truly embraced the culture of training at a high level in our extremely demanding environment every day.
We don’t anticipate a phone call because I believe Chelsea has a good number of right-sided, left-footed attackers, but with loans, you never know. We understand that he’s not a player for us, of course.
“I believe that at this point, everyone can see the advantages of the exposure the player is receiving here, including our club, the player and his family, and his parent club. Everyone is quite content with the current state of affairs, and there’s a good chance it won’t change.”
Chelsea’s decision to let Hutchinson stay at Portman Road until the end of the campaign makes sense. The 20-year-old’s career will gain more from the opportunity to compete for promotion at Ipswich than it could from any mid-table loan.
