Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri has said that he only watched winger Callum Hudson-Odoi play for England for 20 minutes against Montenegro during the recent international break.
Hudson-Odoi has largely been a peripheral figure at Stamford Bridge this season with the 18-year-old attracting very heavy interest from Bayern Munich.
“I saw only 20 minutes,” Sarri said of Hudson-Odoi’s debut.
“This is because I had 14 players in the national teams and I had no time to watch 20 matches. So I saw the English national team only for 20-25 minutes, and Callum didn’t start very well in the first 20 minutes on the right. He did very well on the left, immediately.”
Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher said that Sarri’s comments were stupid and added that the Chelsea board will be shaking their heads at such a dismissive attitude towards a player they’re desperately trying to keep.
“My big problem with what Sarri said about Hudson-Odoi – and it really wound me up because I put myself in that lad’s position – was when he said “I only watched 20 minutes of that game and the 20 minutes I did watch, he didn’t even play that well”.
😡"He has really wound me up" @Carra23 was not impressed with Maurizio Sarri's comments on Callum Hudson-Odoi.
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— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) March 31, 2019
“This is a lad who is making his international debut. Why are you not watching the full game? You could argue he’s watching a load of his other Chelsea team-mates, flicking the channels, whatever. You don’t need to watch them. They’re all 27, 28, 29… this is a young kid.
“Can he handle the spotlight of playing for England? ‘This is a lad I’m trying to keep at my club. So to then just dismiss this lad’s international debut, which is probably the biggest thing that’s ever happened to him as a footballer at a young age, to just dismiss it and say the 20 minutes I did watch he didn’t even play well – I could imagine people above Sarri shaking their heads and thinking, “Why did you say such a stupid thing in a press conference? We are trying to get this lad to sign a contract!”
