Raheem’s the dream for Cal

CALLUM HUDSON ODOI says he is using Raheem Sterling as his inspiration, with Chelsea boss Frank Lampard urging him to follow the Manchester City star’s example.

The winger (below) is fit again after rupturing his Achilles tendon in April and returned to action with Chelsea last weekend.

He has proven fit enough to join up with the England nd Under-21 squad d this week ahead d of Friday’s friendly in Slovenia and the European Championship clash with Austria ria on Tuesday.

Lampard has called on Hudson-Odoi to take a leaf out of Sterling’s book to fulfil his potential, something the winger is keen to do.

He said: “When I have the opportunity, I do speak to Raheem.

“I ask him, ‘How do you get all the goals you are getting, how do you work for the team, how do you impact games?’

“He gives you the best advice possible. He’ll tell me to keep working hard, he’ll tell me how to get the goals, how to get the assists.

“For a person like that to help you, it’s an amazing feeling. He’s in a different team so he doesn’t have to do that.

“But he does because he wants everyone to do well.

“Raheem’s a top player. I’d say he is one of the best wingers in the world right g now.

“It’ “It’s a massive thi thing to know h he’s in the national team and I can chat to him and say what’s w good and an what’s not good.” Hudson-Odoi agrees with Lampard’s assessment of Sterling as a player to look up to, adding: “It’s absolutely correct.

“I look at him as a player and say, ‘If I can be like that, get the goals he’s getting and the way he’s playing, it could be amazing.”

HOW has it come to this? It’s nearly 2020 but football and society in general is being blighted by racism.

Modern-day footballers have their own chefs, diet plans, gymnasiums and personal mind coaches to help them be the best they can be.

But nothing can prepare them for how to deal with racist abuse when it happens during a game, when instinct, emotion and anger can all come to the fore.

But desperate times call for desperate measures and it has emerged that the England squad have a firm and drastic plan in place to deal with racism should it happen in Bulgaria on Monday.

According to Tammy Abraham, Gareth Southgate’s players are prepared to ignore UEFA protocol and take matters into their own hands by walking off the pitch.

The decision was hatched during a team meeting involving all members of the senior staff at St George’s Park on Monday.

Southgate called the meeting, captain Harry Kane led it and it was decided among the group that enough is enough – England’s finest will not take it any more.

Had teams decided to do this sooner, we would have struggled to see games and even seasons completed.

Talk can be cheap, however, and the more anti-racism campaigners speak about it the worse it seems to get. So Southgate and his stars have reached the conclusion that actions speak louder than words.

The England coach’s motto since taking charge three years ago has always been ‘whatever life throws at us, we always stick together’.

Now the Three Lions are bracing themselves for what might be the ultimate test of their camaraderie and principles should the worst come to the worst in Sofia’s Vasil Levski National Stadium on Monday night.

UEFA protocol is for the stadium announcer to issue a warning if racist chants are heard. If it continues, the referee can stop the game and take both sides off. If the game resumes and so does the racist abuse, England have the option to walk off again.

Some things have not changed down the years, sadly, but in other respects the entire scenario concerning England and their supporters is on the brink of altering drastically.

In 2004, during a friendly with Spain, English fans aimed racist chants towards the Spanish team. It was widely condemned by the British government.

Less than 12 months earlier, UEFA had fined the English FA just 150,000 Swiss francs (around £123,000) after racist songs were sung at the Euro 2004 qualifier against Turkey at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light.

These were not new manifestations, just reminders of an issue that refused to go away. What they did do was bring greater awareness to these shores of the problem of racism in sport.

But the issue refused to go away and incidents have continued to happen, while authorities in the game have been unwilling or unable to tackle racism head on.

Earlier this season, the FA stood accused of not taking racism seriously after fining Huddersfield £50,000 for breaching rules on kit advertising, having fined Millwall just £10,000 for racist chanting.

The struggle to prioritise the problem goes on and rulers of the sport in this country are not the only ones to blame.

Ashley Young, Theo Walcott and Ashley Cole were all subjected to monkey chants when England last played in Bulgaria in 2011. The Bulgarian FA were fined just 40,000 Euros.

High-powered organisations have been found wanting for too long and now it could be down to a group of footballers to take the initiative.

Good for them. Being bold and brave should be

applauded.