https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11223037/
'You don't want to be on the bench thinking ''why am I not playing?''':
After watching his career stall thanks to injuries and tumultuous nature
of Chelsea, Callum Hudson-Odoi is feeling welcome and appreciated again on
loan at Bayer Leverkusen
By ROB DRAPER - UPDATED: 23:54 BST, 17 September 2022
The key moment for Callum Hudson-Odoi at the BayArena, Leverkusen, on
Tuesday night came in the 87th minute, when he picked up the ball in his
own half.
https://i.imgur.com/4dAPuqF.jpg
Diego Simeone's Atletico Madrid had been gnarly and obdurate opponents all
night but, having conceded three minutes earlier, they were now a little
bit open for the first time.
Hudson-Odoi sensed it. Playing as a No10 — he had started the game wide
left — he saw Mario Hermoso, a Simeone veteran and Spanish international,
approaching. And he knew he had the speed to expose him. 'I saw him coming
and I knew from earlier that, if I take a touch around him, I'm going to
get past him,' the 21-year-old said later.
https://i.imgur.com/KJR3zg7.jpg
A shimmy and a quick stab of the ball around the Spaniard and Hudson-Odoi
was off. He was making strides into the Atletico half and then saw
substitute Jeremie Frimpong outside him. 'I thought, 'He's got fresher
legs. Just give it to him and let him go!'
Frimpong played in Moussa Diaby who was arriving at the far post to score:
2-0. The BayArena erupted. There were 25,000 there on Tuesday night but
this being Germany, where fans have status and are empowered to create
atmosphere, it felt like 50,000.
Bayer Leverkusen needed this. They have had an awful start to the season
and were sat second-bottom of the Bundesliga, so beating one of Europe's
finest teams felt like a potential turning point. And it was for these
moments Hudson-Odoi came here.
After 90 minutes, he was substituted and universally applauded, as he had
performed well and his link-up with Frimpong, which created the opening
goal, was hugely encouraging. The fans behind the subs' bench stood and
applauded until he acknowledged them. It was as though they wanted to be
sure he felt welcome and appreciated.
They can be reassured he does. The alternative for Hudson-Odoi, the man
who broke Duncan Edwards' record when he made his England debut at 18 —
the youngest player to do so in a competitive game — was not quite as
enticing at Chelsea. At least, it wouldn't have been under Thomas Tuchel.
https://i.imgur.com/Kh2kb7G.jpg
What would Wednesday's Champions League game against Red Bull Salzburg at
Stamford Bridge have looked like for Hudson-Odoi?
If he was lucky, he would have had a seat as a privileged spectator on the
subs' bench. Then, after the game, as the first-team players file through
what is known as the mixed zone, the unused subs can be seen doing a
late-night training session, performing shuttle runs under the deputy
assistant fitness trainer.
Instead, Hudson-Odoi was in Germany playing his part in a famous victory
against first-rate opponents. Last Saturday he was at Hertha Berlin, under
pressure to perform for a struggling team with a manager who needed a
result. They got a 2-2 draw. Real football, 90 minutes worth of it, rather
than the odd cameo from the bench.
“這些是你想參加的比賽。像在這樣的夜晚踢球是一種奇妙的感覺：你知道你正
在開始，在很多球迷的關注下，在一個巨大的氣氛中，面對像馬競這樣的大球隊。”
He is sat in a quiet corner of the bar at the hotel which had been home
since the hastily arranged loan move, before he moved out to an apartment
at the end of last week. Some die-hard fans and hardened executives are
still drinking Weissbier as midnight approaches, but Hudson-Odoi sticks to
soft recovery drinks. 'I enjoyed that!' is his summary of the evening.
There's been much in the last year you suspect he hasn't massively enjoyed
as he waited for regular game time. It's the quandary super clubs such as
Chelsea find themselves in: what do you do with a superbly talented young
player?
Manchester City managed it well with Phil Foden, but Jadon Sancho went to
Borussia Dortmund rather than risk the netherworld of being the glorified
extra in a star-studded squad. Both were team-mates of Hudson-Odoi when
England won the Under 17 World Cup in 2017.
Chelsea have always used the loan system. When Mason Mount was 18, he was
at Vitesse Arnhem, and, when he was 19, he was at Derby County. Reece
James was at Wigan at 18. Both will be part of Graham Potter's starting XI
and Gareth Southgate's World Cup plans.
But when Hudson-Odoi was 18, Bayern Munich made a ￡20million bid for him.
At 19, Bayern wanted him on loan with a ￡70m buy-out clause. When he was
20, Dortmund wanted him on loan. On both occasions, different managers,
Frank Lampard and Tuchel, said no, because he was too good to let go —
though too young, apparently, to play consistently.
https://i.imgur.com/ku0mleV.jpg
Hudson-Odoi has lived in that limbo for a couple of years. There have been
good moments. He was on the bench for their Champions League win in 2021,
but that was a vicarious experience. He played in the UEFA Super Cup and
World Club Cup final wins, providing the assist for Chelsea's equaliser in
Abu Dhabi. But the nadir came at the start of this season, when Tuchel
didn't even have him in the squad for the opening game at Everton.
“審視自己是個困難時刻：我是否做錯了什麼，以至於沒有入選？我永遠不會說
圖赫爾的壞話，他是個好人，也是一個優秀的教練，但本賽季的第一場比賽真的令人
沮喪，任何不能入選大名單的球員都能理解那種挫折。”
https://i.imgur.com/eglfWP4.jpg
“經常踢球能讓你保持穩定，你踢的比賽越多，你的狀態就越穩定，狀態就會越
好。然後你感覺更有活力，你感覺更好，你覺得... 不是說你得到了公平的對待，而
是你得到了主帥的信任，可以推動你，激勵你。你不想在板凳上想， '為什麼我不能
上場踢球？' 然後過了幾個星期，當你能上場的時候，腿可能已經生鏽了。最重要的
是要有穩定的上場時間。這就是我在這裡得到的，它讓我感覺更好。”
“現在有比賽踢，氣勢回來了，我重新振作起來。新聯賽、全新體驗，我知道每
週都有機會去比賽，享受它，微笑著面對它，這絕對是一種新鮮的感覺。”
The decision to come here was done so with the encouragement of Chelsea
team-mate Kai Havertz, whose early years were spent at Leverkusen and
where he remains a local hero.
“哈佛茲的建議只有好話。他說 '我在這裡發展得很好，球隊推動了我的進步，
他們讓我成為一名更好的球員，就是今天的我。' 他催促我來： '去發展你自己、做
你自己、自由。我們知道你能做些什麼。你只需要去一直展示它'。”
https://i.imgur.com/O9jqA9y.jpg
We're so used to parroting the line about the Premier League being the
best league in the world, we forget that the best-attended is the
Bundesliga. And that because fans are an intrinsic part of the social
fabric of clubs, the atmosphere is invariably better.
Hudson-Odoi was taken aback by the intensity of 40,000 fans at Hertha
Berlin's iconic Olympic Stadium last weekend. 'It was very intense,' he
says. 'The fans were crazy, a very good atmosphere. The stadium was
massive.'
What is also intriguing is the pitch Chelsea's new owner Todd Boehly made
to Hudson-Odoi. When the loan deal was being negotiated, Tuchel was still
manager. He didn't appear keen on letting him go, but Boehly met with
Hudson-Odoi and understood why he needed it.
Boehly had one sticking point, however: there would be no clause for Bayer
Leverkusen to make the deal permanent. Hudson-Odoi is exactly the kind of
player Boehly wants Chelsea to nurture.
被老闆挽留是全新的體驗，阿布拉莫維奇可不會這麼做，“確實很不同，當一家
俱樂部試圖租借一名球員時，他們總是希望在賽季結束時能選擇買斷你。但伯利跟我
說： '聽著，我們希望你回到這裡。' ”
“我仍在俱樂部的未來計畫中。按照他試圖建立它的方式，他試圖在未來幾年內
購買很多年輕球員。這表明他希望將年輕球員融入球隊，幫助他們發展。”
Last week's comments from Boehly at a business conference provide further
understanding. He name-checked Kevin De Bruyne and Mo Salah, erroneously
attributing their rise to Chelsea's academy. However, his point was more
broadly well made: Chelsea had those players as youngsters and lost them
because Jose Mourinho was more focused on short-term job preservation than
long-term development.
As such, Chelsea allowed two of the world's great players to slip through
their clutches. It seems Boehly doesn't want to risk the same happening
again. For all the strides Lampard made with James, Mount and Tammy
Abraham, the link-up between academy and first team remained flawed.
https://i.imgur.com/HfA2Brh.jpg
Boehly is impressed with Neil Bath's academy but revealed there still
remain unnecessary firewalls, with data not shared with the first team.
Lampard helped Abraham become an international but Tuchel didn't fancy him
and the club has spent ￡110m since trying to sign a centre forward. Marc
Guehi and Fikayo Tomori play for England now but opted to leave Chelsea
last summer to develop; this summer Chelsea spent more than ￡100m on new
centre-halves because they had let two contracts run down.
In this context, the appointment of Potter makes more sense. Chelsea see
him as the man to build the bridge between academy and first team as a
long-term manager.
And so Hudson-Odoi will continue his quest in Germany for now. He is also
a beneficiary of an excellent European education system and the ubiquity
of the English language. 'The whole squad speak English,' he says. 'Banter
is very strong!'
New friendships are being made and old acquaintances will soon be renewed.
In two weeks' time he will be at Bayern Munich and up against fellow
former Whitgift School team-mate, Jamal Musiala. The pair grew up together
in south London at Chelsea's academy. When Dortmund come, he can hook up
with Jude Bellingham, a former England Under 21 team-mate.
'It's good for young talents to come here, play games and experience
something new,' he says. 'Sometimes you're from London, you want to stick
to that. But it's time to come and develop, try something new and be open
to it.'
Hudson-Odoi is properly out of the comfort zone now. And he couldn't look
happier.
https://bbs.hupu.com/55580367.html