Former England striker Michael Owen is baffled by the idea that Callum Hudson-Odoi would be guaranteed more playing time by moving from Chelsea to Bayern Munich.
Hudson-Odoi is out of contract in June 2020 and has been linked with a £35million move to Bayern Munich before Thursday’s transfer deadline.
The 18-year-old forward has made 11 appearances for Chelsea this season and scored in the Europa League and FA Cup, but has yet to start a Premier League game.
“I’ve been interested in this sort of thing for five or six years now and had a meeting with the FA about the whole dynamic of youngsters coming through and what we needed to do to change, whether that be the loan market or introducing B teams into the leagues,” said Owen, who was speaking as a brand ambassador for Huawei.
“The FA have made one or two changes to make it better but we are still seeing players going abroad to further their careers and get more game time.
“I commend that but the strange one in this situation is how anybody thinks that a player can leave Chelsea and go to a team like Bayern Munich and then be guaranteed to play even more.
“It’s Bayern Munich for crying out loud. It’s not a weak team on the continent. We’re talking Bayern Munich.
“I’m not sure anybody has ever been given absolute assurances that they’re going to play X amount of games when they’ve been signed. I can’t understand why everyone assumes you would go to Bayern Munich and be guaranteed to play more than you would at Chelsea.
“We are talking another level up and one of the top five clubs in the world. Have a look at Bayern’s team. It’s not bad and it’s not going to be easy to penetrate into that.
“I admire anybody that is doing it for the right reasons, but he is only 18 and is integrating into the first team. I don’t think Chelsea are doing a bad job in blooding a talented youngster.”