Chelsea legend Alan Hudson is never short of a controversial opinion or two, but it would be hard to disagree with his latest.
Speaking exclusively to CaughtOffside, ‘Huddy’ couldn’t believe that the Blues had turned down a reported £70m offer (per The Guardian) from Bayern Munich for Callum Hudson-Odoi.
The 19-year-old has long looked a promising talent after rising through Chelsea’s academy, but it’s fair to say he’s not currently showing signs of living up to his true potential, so a big-money sale for a squad player might have been a good opportunity for the club to make a big profit.
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Hudson admits he would have snapped Bayern’s hands off if he’d been in charge.
“This is a little bit of a mystery to me as I have watched this player on several occasions and on that evidence I would snap off the hand of anyone wanting to pay that kind of money,” Hudson told CaughtOffside.
With Chelsea having spent so much money in the transfer window on incoming players, getting such an amount into club coffers would’ve gone some way to balancing the books.
However, Frank Lampard clearly sees a future for the player at Stamford Bridge.
At present, the player is finding it hard to break into the starting XI, and will have to work hard to force his way into the side.
Much will depend on how well the new-look Blues get on as a unit, and also how well they fare in terms of injuries.
For Hudson, however, it’s very much an opportunity missed.
Exactly.
Terrible end to window.
Hudson-Odoi money could have been used to pay for a defensive midfielder. Partey would have been a bargain at £45m ; Rice overpriced at £80m but to end up with none a terrible mistake.
Chelsea are going to get bullied as the season goes on.
The only bright spot is that it is not too long before the next window.
We need party signing
i knew that once rice could not be acquired lampard would not let go Odoi because he did not to want to deplete further his legion of local players having sent out barkley and loftus. the obsession with rice defied logic. A better product in the form of Thomas Partey coming from a stronger team could have been acquired to strengthen a very weak midfield where Kante fights a lone battle defensively.
Odoi, loftus and mount will only thrive under shrewd, patient and very mature coaches such as van gaal, simione, ancellotti and at bayern. i doubt very much if odoi will add value at chelsea. the other thing is that odoi is naive he should make a bold decision and leave chelsea.
It’s an option to buy, not an obligation to buy. Don’t get ahead of yourself. Bayern didn’t exercise the option to buy for Coutinho and James Rodriguez when they had the chance. Chances are very likely that they would not exercise the option to buy Hudson-Odoi unless he becomes a world beater, which is very unlikely.
All through the summer window, I have expected Lampard to go for Upamecano From RB Leizip which would have served as a major upgrade on that central defend. I still believed Chelsea should go for him in January.