Nottingham Forest winger Callum Hudson-Odoi has emerged as a target for Tottenham
Nottingham Forest are the surprise package of the 2024/25 Premier League campaign thus far. After narrowly avoiding relegation last season, the Tricky Trees currently sit third in the Premier League standings with five wins, four draws and one defeat in ten outings.
Nuno Espirito Santo has done a remarkable job by turning Nottingham Forest’s fortunes around. The Portuguese tactician has not only given the players confidence but also made them play as a unit. This has been reflected in their performance levels, and while the team ethic has lifted the Reds to Champions League spots so early into the season, a few individuals deserve a shout-out.
Chris Wood is in the form of his life, bagging eight goals in 10 Premier League appearances—only Manchester City superstar Erling Haaland has more. Callum Hudson-Odoi has also shown signs of being back to his best at Forest.
A youth product of the Chelsea academy, Callum Hudson-Odoi initially looked like a real wonderkid when he first broke into the first team at the club. As time passed, however, the English winger’s star started fading and he became a nobody at Chelsea.
A loan spell at Bayer Leverkusen during the 2022/23 season followed as he hoped to get his career back on track. But it didn’t work out and Hudson-Odoi returned to Stamford Bridge at the end of the season. And just over a year ago, the winger ended his 16-year-old association with his boyhood club Chelsea and signed in a £5m deal for Forest.
After playing a key role in the Midlands club’s survival, Hudson-Odoi is now one of the most in-form attackers in the Premier League. The 24-year-old scored a fantastic goal to help Forest stun Liverpool 1-0 at Anfield in September. He fired in his second league goal of the season at the weekend to give Nuno’s team a 3-0 win over a struggling West Ham side.
Hudson-Odoi’s performances have unsurprisingly not gone unnoticed, with Tottenham Hotspur reportedly keeping tabs on him. The Lilywhites are heading in the right direction under the management of Ange Postecoglou.
In recent years, there has been a change in transfer strategy at N17 where the club have prioritised signing young talents with the potential to develop into world-beaters as they nurture them at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Postecoglou has been at the heart of this booming project, promoting academy kids to the first team and developing the players at White Hart Lane.
Spurs could definitely do with a new addition to their wing department. Timo Werner, who re-signed on a season-long loan from RB Leipzig in May, has been nothing short of a disappointment this season. As a result, the north London club are unlikely to turn Werner’s loan into a permanent deal.
Richarlison’s career at N17 has been blighted by injury problems and it has come to a point where Big Ange just cannot trust him to stay fit anymore, with the Brazilian forward suffering a hamstring injury during the recent win over Aston Villa. Son Heung-min has been a brilliant servant for the club, producing the goods consistently under several different managers. However, he is 32 and coming to the end of his contract, even though Spurs have the option to trigger a one-year extension.
Wilson Odobert and Mikey Moore are prodigious talents who have a bright future ahead in the game. The former has had an injury-stricken start to life at Tottenham upon arriving from Burnley in the summer. Moore, meanwhile, appears to be arguably the next big thing after Harry Kane to emerge from our famed academy. So, Big Ange has the responsibility to carefully bed him into the first team and his system, and while the teenager develops, Daniel Levy and Johan Lange must immediately start planning to replace Son in the long run.
Hudson-Odoi, in that regard, would be an ideal fit. Predominantly operating as a left-winger, the Forest star would make the most sense when it comes to succeeding Son and offering more attacking options to Big Ange. The left-wing department may appear stocked at this moment in time, but in reality, Spurs need someone who is yet to hit his peak, not injury-prone and can compete with the likes of Moore and Odobert in the long run.
-> Tight wage structure hindered Tottenham from signing England international who Postecoglou wanted
This perhaps shows why Tottenham are interested in Hudson-Odoi, who is five years younger than Werner and could unlock his true potential under Big Ange. Plus, the three-cap England international is Premier League-proven and will be determined to test himself at a big club after his career at Chelsea slid into obscurity.
Going forward, getting someone like Hudson-Odoi to bolster the wide department would make sense. And for the Wandsworth-born talent to bag a big move away from City Ground, he has to stay fully fit and perform consistently from now on until the end of the season.
