Josh Acheampong needs first-team football. But can he achieve that at Chelsea?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.