Chelsea have completed the signing of winger Omari Hutchinson from Arsenal.
The 18-year-old was widely regarded as one of Arsenal’s standout prospect but has now headed to the Blues on a permanent deal.
Capable of playing as a winger or an attacking midfielder, Hutchinson joined Arsenal in 2015 and soon shot to prominence with his skill videos.
Hutchinson progressed to scholarship terms in 2020 and went on to play 24 times for the U18s, scoring nine goals and providing nine assists.
Last season he stepped up to the U23s with ease, scoring eight times and setting up seven goals in 22 games.
Last summer Hutchinson featured for the first-team in pre-season and he was named on the bench for ten competitive games last campaign but didn’t get on.
Previously capped by England at youth level, he is now a senior Jamaica international.
It is certainly a huge blow for Arsenal to lose a player of Hutchinson’s quality, although he could be forgiven for having been rather concerned about his first-team chances at the club, especially following the signing of Marquinhos.
There were some opportunities where Hutchinson could have received some senior minutes last season but he has now elected to continue his development elsewhere.
It will be intriguing to see how Hutchinson fares at Chelsea and he is certainly a player who can thrive if managed correctly. It is also quite rare for an Arsenal U21 player to join another big six academy at this stage of their development.
Arsenal, though, have too many players in their academy system, so it was seemingly inevitable that they would lose a top prospect at some stage.
Hutchinson’s choice of destination will hurt Arsenal supporters but his desire to leave isn’t particularly surprising.
Arsenal still have plenty of other talented prospects at the club, with Marcelo Flores amongst them. The Mexico international needs to be given senior opportunities soon, whether at Arsenal or on loan, or it is possible a similar situation could occur.
Jeorge Bird's Arsenal Youth 
Let’s hope, that in the quest for instant succes, that this isn’t the first snowflake leading to an avalanche of our talented youngsters leaving.
I still don’t believe it we wait that long for the golden boy has left us …… Arteta he must be crazy
It does Sting, Jeorge.
I was hoping for Virginia and Musah to make a career here, but Hutchinson already succeeded on the U23 level, so it is a bigger blow.
“…he could be forgiven for having been rather concerned about his first-team chances at the club, especially following the signing of Marquinhos” – summarized perfectly and politely.
“The Mexico international needs to be given senior opportunities soon, whether at Arsenal or on loan, or it is possible a similar situation could occur.” – that is also true, but I see only loan chances, as Marcelo would be 4th choice afer Odeggard, Smith-Rowe and Vieira in the pecking order for a single-player position, without even considering the Paquetá transfer…
It’s a shame, but one mustn’t overlook who the agent of Omari is and how his relationship with Edu has cooled in recent times, is it possible that Edu and Arteta anticipated this scenario and that’s why Marquinhos was brought in?
The number 7 shirt eh, it seems that Chelsea pushed the boat out to get Hutchinson and no doubt Kia was also well looked after, but it just seems to me that Chelsea needed this, the new ownership needed this so that they could claim that it’s business as usual, maybe we’ll get Levi Colwell?