Sport Football
By Matt Law
FOOTBALL NEWS CORRESPONDENTCallum Hudson-Odoi has handed
Frank Lampard another major
boost by indicating that he is ready
to sign a new five-year contract.
The 18-year-old is set to earn
£100,000 a week by staying at
Stamford Bridge and is now just
waiting for Chelsea to sign the deal
off ahead of an announcement.
Securing Hudson-Odoi was a pri-ority for head coach Lampard after
Chelsea agreed new contracts with
Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Mason
Mount. It means that in a summer
in which they are banned from
signing players and have sold Eden
Hazard, Chelsea have secured the
futures of their brightest young-
sters. Hudson-Odoi handed in a
transfer request in January to try to
force through a move to Bayern
Munich.
Chelsea rejected it, and Bayern’s
bids, and have managed to con-
vince Hudson-Odoi that he will get
the opportunities he craves under
Lampard, despite continued inter-
est from the German champions.
Hudson-Odoi’s change of heart
will be seen as a major victory for
both Lampard and director Marina
Granovskaia, who held her nerveduring negotiations despite the
teenager’s contract entering its
final 12 months. Lampard spoke
privately to the winger to reiterate
how highly he rates him and how
he sees him as a pivotal part of
his squad.
He also spoke glow-
ingly of Hudson-Odoi
(right) in public, saying:
“With Callum, of course
I want him to sign and
stay. He’s a player
who’s come through
the academy, he can
be a big player for
Chelsea and England.
We as a club as a
whole want him to
stay. I think he knows
he has a manager who
wants to work withhim to improve and that
takes hard work. Nothing is
given, especially when
you’re 18 years of age, but
with all the attributes Cal-
lum has we want him to
come through at Chel-
sea and be a big
player for us now and
in the future.”
Hudson-Odoi is
recovering from a
ruptured Achilles
tendon and will
miss the start of
the season.
Meanwhile,
Birmingham
City are leading
the race to sign
highly rated defender Jake
Clarke-Salter on loan forthe season. Clarke-Salter captained
England’s Under-21s at the Euro-
pean Championship, following an
impressive season at Vitesse Arn-
hem. The 21-year-old remains
highly thought of at Chelsea, but
Lampard is keen for him to get
competitive experience in England.
With David Luiz, Antonio Rudi-
ger, Andreas Christensen and Kurt
Zouma set to take the four central
defensive places in his first-team
squad, Lampard has given his bless-
ing for Clarke-Salter and Fikayo
Tomori to go on loan. Swansea City
and Leeds United have shown an
interest in Clarke-Salter, but Bir-
mingham are hopeful of landing
him. Tomori is expected to join a
Premier League club on loan after
impressing in the Championship at
Derby County last term.Leader: Jordan Henderson raises the
Champions League trophytions despite the
tract entering its
s. Lampard spoke
winger to reiterate
rates him and how
a pivotal part ofoke glow-
son-Odoi
, saying:
f course
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er for
gland.
as a
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knows
er who
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given, especiall
you’re 18 years of
with all the attrib
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player for us
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Mean
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Clarke-Salter onTeenage winger ready to
accept five-year contract
Academy graduate has a
big future, says Lampard
‘I do not see why
I should be given
more praise than
anyone else here’
S
hortly before Jordan
Henderson stepped onto
the podium for the
defining moment of his
career, he was involved
in a minor altercation
with James Milner.
The formal handing over of the
Champions League trophy was
seconds away and Henderson, the
Liverpool captain, did not want to
accept it alone. He approached
Milner and manager Jurgen Klopp,
urging them to share the honour.
“If anyone other than you lifts that
trophy, they are getting wrestled to
the ground,” Milner replied.
Fifty-two days on from Madrid,
Henderson sits in Boston’s Four
Seasons Hotel eager to set the
course towards the next podium,
but wherever the next steps lead,
he will always be dragged back to
that night; a triumph of collective
leadership.
“I felt myself, Millie and the
gaffer should have lifted it
together,” Henderson says. “I wear
the armband when I play but Millie
wore it when I haven’t been
playing. Without him it would have
been different – and the manager.
What we did that night wouldn’t
have been possible without the
manager, but he said no. For me,
the photo would have meant thesame if the manager was lifting the
trophy and I was behind him.”
Since replacing Steven Gerrard
as captain in 2015, Henderson has
sought his own identity as leader.
His willingness to sacrifice the
trophy lift will surely epitomise his
career wearing the armband – the
ultimate validation of his
leadership style.
“Everyone looks at the captain to
lift the trophy and everyone speaks
highly of the captain when you win
a competition, but if you rewind to
a year or two ago, people would
have been criticising the way I am
and asking if I should be captain,”
Henderson says.
“That is not for me to get
involved with because they do not
really know. You can’t judge a
captain on performance. A lot goes
into it behind the scenes, not just
me. There are a lot of leaders in this
group and the manager. I don’t see
why I should be given more praise.
People outside may have doubted
[me] but I have never felt it was
that way inside. The players and
manager have always been 100 per
cent behind me and I have always
felt their confidence.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m so
proud to captain this club and I
don’t take that lightly. Just playing
for this club is unbelievable, and to
lift the Champions League trophy
was unbelievable. But just winning
the European Cup was enough for
me, with this team, this manager.”
There was another symbolic
moment in the post-final party
when Henderson, who did not
have a drink as he absorbed his
achievement, hunted down hispredecessor for a photograph with
the cup. Gerrard refused. “This is
your night – enjoy it,’” he told
Henderson. A post-career snap
alongside the three living
European Cup-winning captains –
Phil Thompson, Graeme Souness
and Gerrard – was not ruled out.
Henderson has other images to
cherish, the outpouring of emotion
most visceral when hugging his
father, Brian, by the touchline. “I
don’t know how he got down by
the side of the pitch,” Henderson
says. “I know how much it meant
to him and what he’d been through
the last few years, so to see him soquickly after we had won ... you’re
so elated by the whole moment.”
Nearly 30 minutes into an
interview about the future and we
have done it again – spoken at
length about the recent past. But
do not underestimate the
determination of Klopp and his
players to bring that particular
party to its inevitable conclusion.
“We have been talking for the
last few seasons about being so
close to winning a trophy. We kept
going, fighting, and now we have
got that major trophy and we want
to win more,” Henderson says.
“We want to use this to propel
us. We don’t want to win one
trophy and that’s it. We have come
a long way in the past few yearsand we just want to continue on
that journey, that curve riding up.
Everybody will want to beat us. I
felt that was the case last season
anyway and has been for a long
time. We have to deal with that,
like we have done.”
There may be more trophy lifts
soon, with the Community Shield
and Super Cup final within a
matter of weeks. The request to
Milner seems open.
“Football moves so quickly that
you want to focus on the future
and not get caught up in the past.
It’s about wanting more,”
Henderson says. Do not rule out
more heated discussion between
the captain and vice-captain at
Wembley and Istanbul.Jordan Henderson lifted
the trophy but European
glory was a joint effort,
he tells Chris Bascombe
Hudson-Odoi to stay at Chelsea on £100k a week
INTERVIEW
6 ** Wednesday 24 July 2019 The Daily Telegraph
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