"He wants me to play for him. They were encouraging signs for me that you want to hear from a manager"
Thursday 14 November 2019 09:12, UK
Callum Hudson-Odoi has revealed it only took one conversation with Frank Lampard to convince him to sign a new Chelsea deal, rather than move to Bayern Munich.
Chelsea rejected multiple bids earlier this year for the 19-year-old winger, who had been in stalemate over contract talks for much of 2019.
Lampard's appointment as head coach in July breathed new life into the negotiations and Hudson-Odoi signed a new five-year deal in September.
Asked how many conversations he had with Lampard before agreeing to sign, he replied: "One.
"I can't say exactly what he said but he just said he believes in me, he wants me to work hard and if I believe in myself then he believes in me and things will go well for me at this club.
"He wants me to play for him. They were encouraging signs for me that you want to hear from a manager, that he believes in you and he has faith in you, that you can become a good player and achieve a lot of stuff at the club.
"I was excited. It was exciting times that a new manager was coming in and also you know that he will play at least some of the youth boys as well.
"So it's good to know that you are going to play with some of the players from before.
"I said from the start that I made the right decision to stay at Chelsea. I've been there all my life. I've loved the club from day one."
Lampard appears to have a no-nonsense approach to coaching, after a list of club fines emerged on social media on Monday.
The club have not confirmed the list's legitimacy but Hudson-Odoi says his boss is strict when necessary.
"To be fair, we have a couple of fines where it's pretty strict and we have to stick by it," he said.
"But even if there weren't fines, we would still be on point. All of us are very on time with everything that we do.
"We're very positive about everything we do. If there is a fine, we will pay it.
"For the fines, we don't really look into it because we are always on time for what we do so it's okay. It's there but we're all good about it.
"He is hard on me but it's in a good way because he wants me to improve and keep getting better.
"When the manager is telling me stuff, I always want to listen and improve my game because I'm not there yet. I know I can always get better and keep getting better."
