The time has come for Josh Acheampong to be playing regular first-team football. The problem is how.

Acheampong is facing the football equivalent of being stuck between a rock and a hard place.

On the one hand, Chelsea value their academy graduate so highly they have labelled him one of their ‘untouchables’ and consistently rebuffed approaches from other teams seeking his signature. To have such a big club hold you in such esteem is great, right?

Well, yes. It’s just that, compared with the other players Chelsea included on the ‘not for sale list’ going into the current transfer window — Cole Palmer, Reece James, Joao Pedro, Estevao Willian, Moises Caicedo, Levi Colwill and Jorrel Hato — Acheampong is unlikely to benefit from the consistent run of first-team matches you need, especially at 20, for your game to kick on.

It is just over two years since Acheampong made his professional debut, under Mauricio Pochettino, as a late substitute against Tottenham Hotspur. The landmark event came three days before he turned 18. Happy birthday indeed.

The defender has been given game time since then, an achievement in itself when you have come through an academy as competitive as the one at Chelsea. In 2024-25, he made 13 appearances, including 10 starts. Sure, the majority of those starts were in the UEFA Conference League — seven, in all — with only 169 minutes out of his 871 coming in the Premier League, but there was plenty of cause for optimism.

Josh Acheampong has found opportunities limited since breaking into the Chelsea first team (Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)

Chelsea can rightly point to how every one of those numbers went up last season — 30 appearances, 14 starts and 663 of his 1,295 minutes came in the top flight. He also came on for the second half of the second leg in the Champions League round of 16 defeat by Paris Saint-Germain. Chelsea lost 3-0 on the night and 8-2 on aggregate, but what a chance to learn being on the same pitch as Ousmane Dembele, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Vitinha and Bradley Barcola.

However, the figure of just 10 Premier League starts in those two seasons paints Acheampong’s situation in a rather different light.

His overall return in terms of top-flight activity does not exactly scream ‘untouchable’ status, and neither do some of Chelsea’s actions.

Last summer, they tried to sign Dean Huijsen, then 20, from Bournemouth but lost out to Real Madrid. Another young centre-back, Jeremy Jacquet, also 20 at the time, was the subject of bids from the west London club in January before he ended up joining Liverpool.

Buying a centre-half had been Chelsea’s priority for this window, too, and last week they agreed the £52million ($69.1m) signing of Maxence Lacroix from Crystal Palace. At 26, the Frenchman is deemed a ready-made playing partner for Levi Colwill, now fully fit again after last season’s long-term injury. They have also shown great interest in Como’s Jacobo Ramon, 21, and enquired about 32-year-old John Stones, the 94-cap England international who is a free agent this summer after leaving Manchester City, before securing Lacroix.

In other words, Chelsea have continued to look elsewhere despite their appreciation for Acheampong’s talent — and that has sent out a confusing message.

Josh Acheampong joins Levi Colwill in a Chelsea training session during their ongoing tour (Ayush Kumar/Getty Images)

Now a new manager in Xabi Alonso, plus those who run Chelsea, are under pressure to secure positive results when the games begin in earnest next month. It is a big call to put all your trust in a relatively inexperienced academy player who is inevitably going to make a mistake or two along the way, and will need some extra protection as well as patience on the pitch while he develops.

There is a frustrated fanbase to consider, too. They want success for the club and voice their displeasure when that does not happen.

There are also players in the first-team dressing room who play the same position, such as Wesley Fofana, and are on significantly higher wages than Acheampong. If they and he are not selected, who is going to cause the biggest fuss?

Fofana has had plenty of opportunities to justify his £69.5million acquisition from Leicester City in 2022, as well as his sizeable salary. He has yet to do so. And yet the early indications are that he remains ahead of Acheampong in the pecking order under Alonso, and that is even before Lacroix joins up with the squad after World Cup duty with France.

Even though he came on as a second-half substitute in the first competitive pre-season friendly against Western Sydney Wanderers on Tuesday (with starters Acheampong and Tosin Adarabioyo going off at that point), Fofana was the one who played next to guaranteed first-teamer and fellow replacement Colwill for the final half-hour.

Josh Acheampong in action against Crystal Palace in 2025 (Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images)

At first glance, Acheampong being in the starting XI for that 6-4 win looks like a very good thing. But he was the only ‘untouchable’ in a team made up of fringe players — Tosin, Dario Essugo and Liam Delap — and other talented academy products or youngsters such as Reggie Walsh, Reggie Watson, Dastan Satpaev, Ryan Kavuma-McQueen and Landon Emenalo.

It was a similar story in the two friendlies staged behind closed doors before this tour to Australia and East Asia began in Sydney, against EFL sides Crawley Town and Bromley respectively, when Acheampong was the one coming on as a second-half sub.

If he is not playing with the A-team now, it does not bode well for the beginning of the campaign proper, when all the squad are likely to be available.

Football is about taking your chances when they come, of course, and Acheampong did not shine next to Tosin with teenagers Emenalo and Olutayo Subuloye at full-back yesterday. That was untimely.

Josh Acheampong did not put in a perfect display against Western Sydney Wanderers (Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images)

With Chelsea not involved in European competition in 2026-27, Acheampong’s task of improving on last season’s numbers looks harder, not easier.

His chances of playing right-back have dropped, due to this month’s acquisition of 21-year-old Marco Palestra from Atalanta. Also, even if some team meet Chelsea’s £75million asking price for Malo Gusto, club captain James remains an obstacle between him and game time at that position, on top of the highly rated Palestra.

Would a loan be the next best thing? Maybe, but there is always the risk Acheampong would be swapping one bench for another.

James (Wigan Athletic) and Colwill (Huddersfield Town and Brighton and Hove Albion) serve as examples of what a significant impact a good loan away from Chelsea can have, but there are far more cases of the club’s academy talent being wooed away by a manager, only to discover they are just cover at their temporary club in case of injury.

Should Acheampong stay at Chelsea, he looks to be facing a third successive season of being played only in fits and starts, so it is going to be difficult for him to fulfil his potential if that remains the case.

The counter-argument is that something is better than nothing, and he does still have age on his side. Plus he will have the chance to be tutored by Alonso, a man who played for Liverpool, Madrid, Bayern Munich and Spain. That might constitute a better education than being farmed out elsewhere.

Clubs who continue to cast admiring glances in his direction will be encouraged by the fact that, if Chelsea do not want to cash in now, Acheampong will have just two years left on his contract at the end of this season even if no extension is agreed. At that stage, a club have to think a lot more about accepting a high bid there for fear of the value depreciating as the player edges closer to free-agent status.

Chelsea have developed a fine player and their stance in wanting to keep Acheampong is understandable. But neither club nor player stand to benefit if he does not feature more often on the pitch in the season ahead.

The arrival of Danny Imray at Crystal Palace as a 17-year-old from non-League Chelmsford City whipped up little expectation.

A 2021 signing for what was then the Under-23 side, the hope was he might one day develop into a first-team contender rather than being earmarked as a guaranteed future Palace player.

Palace recognised his potential at that age and brought him in without much risk for in effect a nominal fee. An exciting, attacking full-back, Imray progressed well. Now, three loan spells on, he has been left out of Palace’s squad for the Como Cup this week and is close to joining Wrexham for a fee that could rise above £5million ($6.6m).

It is the type of deal Palace should be aiming to replicate.

Danny Imray impressed during his latest loan spell at West Bromwich Albion last season (Simon Galloway/Getty Images)

They did something similar with Justin Devenny, bringing him in from Scottish Championship side Airdrie in August 2023. Devenny was 19 and, after standing out for the under-21s, has now made 60 appearances for Palace’s first team in all competitions.

Many have been as a substitute, but he has established himself as capable back-up and cover in midfield. There are obvious limitations to his game, such as an over-dependence on his left foot, but his endeavour and work rate have proven valuable to mitigate the shortcomings.

If he were to be sold now, he would command a not-insignificant fee. Alternatively, he may continue to offer an extra option from the bench at Palace when others are tiring in the latter part of a game, and he would do so at a lower cost than if Palace signed someone else to act as cover.

Even after 13 years in the Premier League, Palace do not have the financial might to sign expensive players to be squad options. Bringing them up from the academy or under-21 side, or signing young talent from elsewhere and developing them, is the model to which they must aspire.

Justin Devenny has proved a useful squad player for Crystal Palace (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)

Imray’s pathway was different to Devenny’s. He spent his time out on loan and never made a senior appearance at his parent club. But in achieving such a high fee for the 23-year-old, Palace have done well. It is something they must replicate with low-risk signings who could develop into players who can be sold on for a sizeable profit.

They did the same with defender Jake O’Brien, who arrived at the same time as Imray and is now a Republic of Ireland international at Everton. Signed from Cork City, his striking physical presence was always an advantage and the hope was he might progress. In the end, Palace did not feel he was likely to be at the required level to play for their first team in the Premier League.

But successful loans with Swindon Town and RWD Molenbeek were beneficial to his development. He joined Lyon for an initial £1m before Palace earned a further £3.2m courtesy of a sell-on clause when he moved to Merseyside in July 2024.

He has made 64 appearances in the two years since, but Palace’s defence at the time of his departure was settled and he would not have had many opportunities had he stayed. Furthermore, he had entered the final year of his contract and had no intention of signing a new one in part due to that lack of pathway into the senior side.

In that context, selling was a sensible decision, particularly with the insertion of the sell-on.

That Palace will have earned nearly £10m for two players signed on the same day as hopeful punts rather than certain prospects is promising. Learning when the optimum time is to sell is as important as identifying and developing talents in the first place.

It applies to academy graduates, too. Jesurun Rak-Sakyi, picked up when he was released by Chelsea’s Under-18s, was close to a permanent departure last summer at the end of the transfer window but ended up out on loan instead. The intention from Palace was to sell but a deal could not be completed. That would have earned them around £10m.

Crystal Palace benefited from a sell-on clause when Jake O’Brien left Lyon for Everton (Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

Midfielder David Ozoh has enjoyed successful back-to-back loans with Derby County in the Championship. He is likely to be loaned out again in the hope he continues his development, but if he is not wanted by manager Pierre Sage this season, he would command a decent fee on the back of his performances in the second tier.

Imray might have been sold last season, before his loan stints at Blackpool and West Bromwich Albion. Sources familiar to the situation, speaking anonymously to protect relationships, have told The Athletic that a League One club bid £750,000 for his services, but Palace opted not to take up the offer. He then progressed further and his value subsequently increased.

These fees are always likely to be lower than those achieved by selling genuine first-team contenders, but they accumulate and afford greater leeway in the transfer window. It can be the difference as to whether Palace can afford to buy an extra player or not.

It will not always work out, as was the case with Craig Farquhar, Dylan Reid or Rylan Brownlie in the under-21s, or Luke Plange and Malcolm Ebiowei, both signed from Derby in 2022. But within reason, so long as players are well scouted, the policy is logical and one Palace would be wise to pursue.

There are special ingredients that coaches tend to identify in Jordan Henderson, who has nearly always backed himself while performing with a sense that he has everything to prove.

The trait runs all the way back to his earliest days as a footballer, perhaps best illustrated by a story that led to a first-team opportunity at Sunderland.

It is almost 18 years to the day since Henderson and the rest of the club’s under-21 players were hauled back to the training ground by the first team manager, Roy Keane, after losing a pre-season game at non-League Gateshead.

Keane had not attended the match, but he was furious with the result. Neil Bailey, Keane’s appointment as a youth coach, remembers Keane locking the dressing room door and asking each one of the players whether they thought they were good enough to have a career in the game.

“A lot of them shied away from the confrontation,” Bailey told The Athletic in 2020. “But Jordan went: ‘Yeah, I do…,’ which impressed Roy.”

The following afternoon, Keane rewarded Henderson for standing up for himself with a first team debut against Ajax in another friendly at the Stadium of Light. Three months later, he was involved in a competitive match, introduced as a half-time substitute by Keane with Sunderland already three goals behind and well on their way to a 5-0 drubbing at Chelsea.

Even someone as driven as Henderson would surely not have imagined on that November afternoon that he would be returning to Stamford Bridge, aged 36, to sign for a club now managed by Xabi Alonso.

Back in 2008, Alonso was in the middle of his last season at Liverpool, where Henderson later played for 12 seasons, captaining the team for seven. Upon his own departure from Liverpool, Jurgen Klopp tried to replace him with a record transfer for Moises Caicedo, and when he did not get him, he went for Romeo Lavia but missed out again to Chelsea.

Now, Henderson will compete with both players for a berth in the same midfield.

Henderson playing for Sunderland in 2009 (Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)

Football can be a strange old business. Yet there is clearly something high-level coaches still admire about Henderson, three years after he found out Klopp, Liverpool’s former manager, did not rate him quite as highly as he used to after a discussion about a lucrative offer suddenly coming his way.

This reckoning resulted in Henderson convincing himself it was a good idea to follow the money to Saudi Arabia’s Al Ettifaq. It was a move he quickly regretted for different reasons, not least the reputational damage that followed him to a country where same-sex activity and non-gender conformity are criminalised. This also came after he’d highlighted LGBTQ+ rights during his time at Liverpool.

By the end of 2023, he was angling for a move back to Europe. He signed for Ajax, where he was appointed captain. Last summer, he returned to England, helping Brentford to ninth place — their highest finish in five Premier League campaigns, but he was not always in the starting XI. After 22 starts and 10 substitute appearances, he became the first English player to be selected for seven major international tournaments at the 2026 World Cup, where Thomas Tuchel spoke enthusiastically about his leadership and standard-setting away from matches.

Having barely played, Henderson was mocked for injuring himself in the celebrations after England’s round-of-16 victory over Mexico in the Azteca Stadium. However, his team-mates openly spoke about how important it was for him to stick around. Morgan Rogers said: “To have him back as quickly in camp, and back to normal him, will be the best for the group.”

Competition in the squad raises questions over how much game time Henderson will have at Chelsea, but he does fit into their drive for more experience and maturity. Henderson’s story is underpinned by patience, perseverance and endurance, and it should act as a lesson to any young footballer. Chelsea’s squad is stacked with plenty of those.

Before Sunderland, Henderson played for Fulwell Juniors, one of the best amateur youth set-ups in Tyne and Wear. His coach there was Shaun Turnbull, who acknowledged to The Athletic in 2020 that Henderson was not the best player in the team, but “what set him apart was his willingness to track back and win the ball”. 

Henderson had a natural enthusiasm, and at Sunderland, his youth coach Elliott Dickman suggested that although he was “good at running forward, but even better at running backwards”, his willingness to do the hard yards kept him at the club, especially when others grew at a faster rate.

“Eight or nine boys got signed on as a scholar ahead of Jordan because we didn’t know whether his body would catch up,” remembered Ged McNamee, the club’s academy manager. “We waited for as long as possible before offering him a deal.”

The uncertainty turned out to be useful for Henderson, who spoke years later about the impact this period had on his mentality.

“It taught me you are never really done,” he said during a roundtable interview in 2018, as Liverpool prepared for the first of three Champions League finals during his time as captain, winning one in 2019. That he also became a Premier League winner a year after that means he remains the only Liverpool captain since Graeme Souness to lift the most prestigious European and domestic trophies in successive seasons.

Yet at Liverpool, there was a long struggle for acceptance, with doubts about his ability spreading across all levels, from the supporters to the club’s owners, managers, and his team-mates.

Though Luis Suarez came to realise he could rely on Henderson, there was one training session where Liverpool’s best player indicated how he really felt. “Luis was waving his arms about all over the place after I didn’t pass to him quickly enough,” Henderson told The Greatest Game with Jamie Carragher in 2019. For Henderson, it felt like a scalding that meant something.

After leaving Sunderland in 2011, Henderson became a lightning rod for criticism at Anfield, especially under Kenny Dalglish. When Dalglish’s short second reign came to an end, Fenway Sports Group were willing to sell Henderson. Even though Brendan Rodgers, the club’s new manager, agreed with them, Henderson decided to stay and fight for his place.

Henderson playing against Bolton in 2012 (Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

In the meantime, he was written off by Manchester United’s Sir Alex Ferguson, who suggested in his autobiography that his running gait would end up holding him back. Though he became a key component in Rodgers’ midfield during the 2013-14 season, as Liverpool went closer to ending their title wait than at any point since 1990, the next few seasons were undermined by a heel injury that left him in agony.

With Steven Gerrard gone, Henderson became Liverpool’s captain, but he would miss so many games that he did not always feel like the team’s leader, even under Rodgers’ successor, Klopp, who offered no guarantees about the player’s future upon his own appointment.

Henderson was the squad’s shop steward, and when team-mates complained about the late timing of training sessions to fall in line with kick-offs, he famously approached the manager on their behalf to try to schedule them earlier. Henderson reassured Klopp there were “plenty” of players who felt the same way, only for Klopp to insist each one of them came to see him directly. “No one ever went up,” Henderson recalled in the High Performance Podcast in 2023.

The five-week period from the start of May 2019 probably best sums up Henderson’s time at Liverpool because it started with him, as captain, on the bench in their crushing Champions League semi-final first leg defeat at Barcelona. A week later, he somehow soldiered on until the final whistle despite clearly being injured in the opening exchanges of a famous return match at Anfield, where Liverpool went through with a 4-0 victory. Then, at the start of June in Madrid, he was in tears as he celebrated winning the final, embracing with his father, Brian, who was battling with cancer.

These were hugely emotional scenes, so it will be strange for Liverpool supporters seeing Henderson in a Chelsea shirt. Perhaps the idea that he was no longer wanted by Liverpool in 2023 will help Henderson in those conversations, though it should be stressed Liverpool’s directors were willing to cut him loose in 2021, only for Klopp to intervene with a new contract.

The period in Saudi Arabia, which amounted to just 19 appearances, was surely more harmful. Judging by the positive reception he received upon his return to Anfield for the first time as an opposition player on the final day of last season, at least some attitudes have softened since 2023 when, as Mohamed Salah told TNT Sports, Henderson, “didn’t get the send-off or farewell he deserved because he left immediately”.

In the same interview with Gerrard earlier this year, Salah, Henderson’s team-mate of six seasons, suggested he had been: “One of the best players at this club… without him being there in the dressing room, we wouldn’t have achieved what we achieved.”

One of the reasons why Klopp eventually decided that a parting of the ways might be a good idea was because he envisaged Henderson playing less, and during these periods, he was difficult to keep happy.

Henderson lifts the Champions League trophy in 2019 (Matthias Hangst/Getty Images)

For England, he seems to have accepted a role that isn’t defined by what he does on the pitch, perhaps because he cares so much about representing his country. Yet he has never explicitly been in that position in club football, certainly one he has no affiliation with.

After Henderson’s year on the sidelines internationally, Tuchel introduced himself by video call because he wanted to gauge Henderson’s reactions. The player’s club coach at Ajax at that time, Francesco Farioli, suggested that Henderson’s “mentality and professionalism” were not in decline, as reported by Sky Sports.

Tuchel described him as a “serial winner”. He also told ITV, as reported by Sky Sports, that Henderson was “the glue in every team where he has played”.

And that is the key question from here: How much will he play for Chelsea, and will it be enough to appeal to his instincts?