Frank Lampard says Callum Hudson-Odoi will have a central role under him at Chelsea.
Bayern Munich want the Blues teenager, who has a year remaining on his contract at Stamford Bridge.
Hudson-Odoi reportedly wants assurances he will have a first-team future before he commits his future to the club.
And new boss Lampard has made it clear there will be a major role for him once he recovers from a ruptured Achilles tendon.
“He is going to be central for us on the pitch and that is the opportunity that is really in front of him now. So that’s what I will speak to him about and I hope he stays,” said Lampard, as reported by the Sunday Telegraph.
“I am not going say things that are pie in the sky. I am not going to say, ‘This is all going to be your way’. But knowing his talent he can be central to this team, he can be central to an England team.
“I am going to say I want to work with him, I want to drive him forward. I want to improve him as a player and he can show right here at Chelsea, the club he came through the academy at, that he is going to be an absolute world-class player – because I truly believe that.”
Hudson-Odoi certainly appears in no rush to sign a new deal – and before getting a run in the side prior to his injury he made it clear he was ready to leave.
“I don’t know what the position was too much last year,” Lampard said. “What I do know that before Callum got injured you could certainly see when he got opportunities he was playing well. He was showing the player that he is.”