ROBERT GREEN has revealed Chelsea stars openly questioned former boss Maurizio Sarri’s decision not to play young prodigy Callum Hudson-Odoi. The former Blues and England keeper has also tipped the 18-year-old to move on to “greater things”. Hudson-Odoi signed a £180,000-a-week deal at Chelsea last month and has returned to the squad from an Achilles […]
ROBERT GREEN has revealed Chelsea stars openly questioned former boss Maurizio Sarri’s decision not to play young prodigy Callum Hudson-Odoi.
The former Blues and England keeper has also tipped the 18-year-old to move on to “greater things”.
Hudson-Odoi signed a £180,000-a-week deal at Chelsea last month and has returned to the squad from an Achilles tendon injury.
But the youngster hardly featured under Italian Sarri last term, baffling Green, who retired in the summer, and other senior figures at the club.
It prompted Bayern Munich to make several bids for the youngster – rejected by Blues – with the player wanting out due to a lack of first-team opportunities.
But new Stamford Bridge chief Frank Lampard convinced the winger to stay after telling him he would be a key part of his new-look Blues side.
Green, 39, recalled the situation last season when he told BBC Radio Five Live: “We were in the dressing room last season and the players were saying, ‘how is he not playing?’
“He was going out in training and tearing some of the best defenders in the world apart.
“He was consistently the best in training.
“It was to the point where some of the best players in the world were standing there applauding what he was doing.”
Green believes Hudson-Odoi will now thrive both for club and country.
He said: “He has got such a brilliant mind and he is so confident.
“When he goes out there he will try things and he will try it on the biggest stage.
“He will do something and you will ask him: ‘When have you done that? Why did you do that?
“He would say, ‘because I’ve never done it before and I thought I’d try it’.
“You knew from the way he spoke and the way he is around the lads, the way he holds himself and obviously his ability, he is going to be at Chelsea for as long as he wants to be and then, maybe, on to greater things.”
Due to his lack of game time Gareth Southgate left Hudson-Odoi out of his senior squad for the latest Euro 2020 qualifier.
But he is set to start for the Under-21s, who take on Slovenia on Friday.
