Blues legend Terry Butcher says he would have told wantaway winger Omari Hutchinson to train on his own for the remainder of his contract after the former Chelsea man pulled out of Tuesday’s Carabao Cup tie at Bromley due to his ongoing transfer situation.
Hutchinson, who is edging closer to a move to Nottingham Forest, who are reported to be near to agreeing a £37.5 million fee for the 21-year-old, trained on Monday but, having made his desire to return to the Premier League clear, "didn’t feel that he could contribute with the situation as it is,” according to manager Kieran McKenna.
Asked what he would have done with a player in Hutchinson’s situation in this week’s Life’s a Pitch TV with the situation having progressed significantly since it was recorded last night, Butcher said: "If I was the manager I would say, ‘You train on your own, you’ve got four years of your contract left, so all the very best. Enjoy it, we’ll meet in four years’ time’.
"I think he’s a good player. The one thing that strikes me is he played in the Premier League for a year last year and wasn’t very good. Hardly contributed.
"I know clubs have put bids in because of the potential, I fully understand that, he had a very good Euros, scored in the final, but it’s a lot different to the Premier League. If he thinks he’s worth it, then we’ll see what happens.
"If he doesn’t get sold, he’s going to face the possibility of then having to grovel or having to say sorry because the fans will want him to say sorry because no one turns down the chance to play for Ipswich Town Football Club.
"There’s a crisis coming up if he doesn’t go that he’s got to meet head on. That’s why the ball’s really very much in Town’s court, although we are losing a very good player. We saw what happened in the Championship, he was excellent, he was really, really good.
"He’s a really good Championship player but a poor Premier League player, at the moment. It’s up to you Omari at the end of the day. I wouldn’t be bothered about it. In the end, you don’t want him around the dressing room.”
This week’s guest Tommy Smith, who recently joined National League Braintree having returned from a spell playing for Auckland FC in New Zealand, agreed that it would be a long way back for Hutchinson if his Premier League move doesn’t happen.
"You only want the players around you that are willing to give everything for the shirt and if he’s not willing to do that, that obviously puts the team in a very difficult position from a culture point of view. You need everyone pulling in the same direction,” he said.
"The only real way back from that now is to apologise and it probably takes a little bit more than apologising, he has to come in and then make a massive contribution.
"He’s made a rod for his own back a little bit. But it’s tricky one because he’s a very good player, he has been a good player, but he does need to understand that he does need to buy into the team ethos and if he’s not going to do that, you just move him to one side.”
Butcher’s fellow legend-in-residence Russell Osman, after initially joking that he wasn’t in the right frame of mind to contribute, recalled being concerned by something Hutchinson said when receiving a Man of the Match award early on in his loan spell with the Blues in 2023/24.
"Everybody’s waiting to see what he’s going to say in this little interview and the question was, ‘Do you think you’ll be with us next season?’. And his response was, ‘Well, my agent will see what the best move is for me’. That was 18 months ago and that set alarm bells ringing in my head.”