Chelsea head coach Maurizio Sarri has told Callum Hudson-Odoi he has the potential to be one of Europe’s best players. Bayern Munich and other top clubs around Europe have been linked with a move for the 18-year-old, whose Chelsea contract has 18 months to run, but Sarri has suggested he is going nowhere. “He is a very good player, the potential is for becoming a great player, and now he has to improve,” Sarri revealed. “He has to improve I think in movement without the ball. As a winger, he has to improve in the defensive phase, but he has the potential to become a very important player, not only for English football I think but for European football.”
Chelsea supporters have long been clamouring for an academy graduate to emulate long-serving skipper John Terry by enjoying a lengthy career in the first team.
Sarri admitted the struggle to balance winning with promoting young talent at Chelsea.
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Asked if young players, like Hudson-Odoi, need to be more patient, Sarri said: “Also Chelsea fans sometimes, also the club sometimes, and so I am in the middle. I have to win. “It’s not easy at this level to take the young players from the academy and he’s ready to play, not only here, everywhere in Europe. “We are lucky because we have (Ethan) Ampadu, we have (Andreas) Christensen, we have Odoi. We are really very lucky, or the academy is very good.”
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