Sarri just can’t see Callum’s brilliance
MAURIZIO SARRI was most indignant when asked why he hadn’t bothered watching all of Callum hudson-odoi’s debut for england last week. ‘I saw only 20 minutes,’ he said. ‘I had 14 players in the national teams and I had no time to watch 20 matches.’ Do you know how many players sarri had in action on the night hudson-odoi played arguably the biggest game of his life? not 14, but two. n’Golo Kante and olivier Giroud. And maybe sarri is still learning about a pair who won the World Cup last July, but the fact is he could have watched a combined 171 minutes of them in action for France in Moldova on Friday, March 22, and still seen all of hudson-odoi’s first england start three days later. Far from having 14 in action in the international break, Chelsea had 10 who featured, including hudson-odoi and Ross Barkley. of those, Kepa Arrizabalaga, Antonio Rudiger, Andreas Christensen, Jorginho, eden hazard and Mateo Kovacic couldn’t have prevented sarri viewing hudson-odoi because their countries did not play on the same night. the only nation to have both Chelsea players and fixtures that clashed with england’s games were France. so, as sarri admits seeing just 20 minutes of hudsonodoi, that means he spent 70 watching a midfielder and centre forward playing for the world champions at home to Iceland. Maybe he didn’t watch any of it, and went down the pub. Frankly, he couldn’t look less interested in hudson-odoi’s progress if he had spent two weeks plastered in the Anglesea Arms. no wonder the player wants out.