Bayern chairman promises they will be back for Hudson-Odoi in the summer

Chelsea may have been able to successfully hold on to Callum Hudson-Odoi in January, but the saga of the 18-year-old’s future is far from over. In fact, it’s probably only getting started. Bayern aren’t used to not getting their way, after all, as club chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge confirmed in an interview with Bavarian tabloid TZ.

“Hasan (Salihamidzic) is a bit like Uli (Hoeneß). In the past we have often had transfers that did not work out on the first try — only on the second. And just as I know Hasan, he will work to make it happen on the second try.”

“We want to have the best quality of players at Bayern and Hasan is totally convinced of this player. That’s the reason.”

-Karl-Heinz Rummenigge; source: TZ via Google Translate

And it’s not just the top brass putting pressure on Director of Football Salihamidzic. Brazzo himself is apparently “in love” with Hudson-Odoi’s talents, thus deciding to conduct his very public interest-signaling. (Rummenigge claims it was all very above board, of course, with no illegal tapping-up occurring at all.)

“The only thing that Hasan would have been happy to finish was this player form Chelsea, because he had practically fallen in love with this player on account of his quality.

“I wouldn’t deny now that the aggressive courting in London didn’t go over well. But you also can’t forget that Hasan Salihamidzic had to give the player a sign somewhere. He wasn’t directly in touch with him personally, since that’s not allowed after all, but the player still needed to get a signal as to whether Bayern Munich completely stood behind him.

“Everything else was really just rumors. We don’t absolutely need reinforcements at these positions in the Rückrunde. That’s a subject for the future that we’ll address in the coming months and decide accordingly.”

-Karl-Heinz Rummenigge; source: TZ via BFW

Meanwhile, Chelsea have been adamant that Callum isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, and not just this season. The Blues appear well prepared to drag this out well past the summer and well into Hudson-Odoi’s final contract year. The risk is missing out on a semi-hefty transfer fee. The reward is a potential generational talent — has to be, right, if Bayern are this interested? — born and raised in the club.

Convincing the kid to change his mind about leaving won’t be an easy task of course, and we’ll need Sarri to actually play along, too, and not just in words.