Unless you’ve been living under a rock since the start of the football season, you’ll have no doubt have heard of the incredible form of Jadon Sancho.

The 18-year-old winger has been lighting up the Bundesliga for Borussia Dortmund, earning rave reviews and a spot in the England squad under Gareth Southgate.

Sancho though, is just the highest-profile youngster in the Bundesliga to make waves having come from the Premier League. Arsenal loanee Reiss Nelson has also been in excellent form for Hoffenheim, West Ham’s Reece Oxford has spent three loan spells in Germany and Ademola Lookman impressed at RB Leipzig before returning to Everton.

Sancho’s incredible rise has been seen by many as a damning indictment of the chances given to young players in the Premier League and has undoubtedly lead to the situation Chelsea find themselves in with Callum Hudson-Odoi.

The parallels between the players are obvious; Sancho had come through the Manchester City academy but decided to seek a move away after the club were unable to guarantee him playing time, a situation Hudson-Odoi now finds himself in at Chelsea.

Hudson-Odoi has featured sporadically for Chelsea this season, but finds himself behind Eden Hazard, Pedro and Willian in the Stamford Bridge pecking order and with Christian Pulisic joining in the summer could fall even further away from the starting XI.

So it’s understandable that when Bayern Munich came knocking, Hudson-Odoi was keen to make the move. With Arjen Robben leaving in the summer and Franck Ribery coming to the end of his career, Bayern’s wide positions are up for grabs. Sancho’s Bundesliga exploits coupled with Bayerns stature as an elite European team make it an attractive prospect for the young Englishman.

Hudson-Odoi clearly feels that Chelsea cannot offer him the chance to make it at the elite level of football and needs to move away, an opinion that has become more prevalent throughout the media in regards to the Premier League.

This is the myth that Sancho has created, that to make it in modern football the Premier League is not a viable option. Young players need to move away from the English leagues which have become flooded with expensive imports who block the way for academy graduates.

Yet just last night Newcastle and Burnley both started young academy players who have made their breakthrough this season, with 21-year-old Sean Longstaff getting on the scoresheet for the Magpies and 19-year-old Dwight McNeil starting on the left for Burnley.

Injuries mean Liverpool have been unable to field Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joe Gomez in recent weeks, both senior England players despite being just 20 and 21. Arsenal regularly field their academy graduates Alex Iwobi and Ainsley Maitland-Niles, while teenager Mateo Guendouzi who was signed last summer has been a regular in midfield.

Tottenham’s Harry Winks has become a vital part of their team this season, with Kyle Walker-Peters and Oliver Skipp making the step up when needed, the Spurs academy enjoying a fruitful time since the breakthrough of one Harry Kane. West Ham’s Declan Rice is almost the first name of the team sheet at the London Stadium and has been praised as one of the best defensive midfielders in the League in recent weeks.

After the spate of injuries against Liverpool, Manchester United ended the game at Old Trafford with Scott McTominay and Andreas Pereira in midfield, both academy graduates, while Marcus Rashford gave all he could practically on one leg. Rashford is still only 21, making over 100 appearances since his debut at 17 and in recent weeks has played the best football of his already impressive career.

Given the injury crisis at United, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will turn to teenagers Tahith Chong, Angel Gomes and James Garner against Crystal Palace, whilst 21-year-old Aaron Wan-Bissaka will most likely start at right-back for the Eagles. Over at Bournemouth David Brooks has been a revelation since signing from Sheffield United.

This is where the myth of the lack of chance begins to fall apart. This season particularly has seen a very talented generation of young players begin to make their mark on the Premier League.

This is not to say that their is no truth in the Hudson-Odoi or Sancho situations, but the problem that many have ascribed as being a league wide issue is in fact an issue for just two teams, Chelsea and Manchester City.

This is symptomatic of the ownership and funding of these clubs; both are owned by incredibly rich backers and have taken to hoarding young talents, hoovering up players from across the globe, a tactic which has got Chelsea into hot water after FIFA found them guilty of signing underage players from outside of Europe.

Despite having so many youngsters on their books, whether it be directly at the club, through clubs in the same ownership group or feeder clubs, both City and Chelsea have spent vast amounts assembling squads that leave little chance for youngsters.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek for example may have thought he was in line for decent first team minutes at Chelsea but then the club laid out over £50 million on Jorginho to add to an already crowded midfield. Ethan Ampadu has made less Premier League match squads for Chelsea than he has Wales senior squads this season. Chelsea currently have 41 players out on loan many of whom are academy players including the hugely impressive Tammy Abraham and Mason Mount,  and then of course there is Hudson-Odoi.

Manchester City meanwhile have Phil Foden, regarded as one of the hottest prospects in English football, making only occasional appearances in cup competitions. In January they lost another prospect as Brahim Diaz left to join Real Madrid, a player City obviously think will become very talented as they insisted on a 15% sell-on fee should Madrid cash in which rises to 40% should he be sold to “another Manchester club”.

This is another part of the problem. The young players City and Chelsea hoard are often, particularly for Chelsea, regarded as assets to be sold on at a profit when it becomes clear they won’t make the first-team or they agitate for a move. Holding on to Hudson-Odoi seems more like a face-saving move than a desire to keep a player who they aim to promote to the first-team.

The signing of Pulisic is a signal of the attitude held by the Chelsea hierarchy towards their own youngsters, one of mistrust due to a lack of playing time and experience but with little chance to get any. Chelsea have decided instead to pay £60 million pound for a young player who another team has nurtured and developed rather than take those steps with one of their own.

Despite all of this though, there are still chances in English football. It definitely isn’t perfect, but chances do come and for those making their ways into the teams for the first time the future certainly looks very bright.