With the exception of Belarus, South Korea and now, Germany, global football is currently suspended. The Premier League has been given the all clear by the government to restart in June, behind closed doors, and today brought news that training, in small groups, can now resume.
However, there are still plenty of questions to be answered when it comes to Project Restart, and we’ll learn more as the days and weeks go by. Until football actually returns, we still have plenty of news items to cover. So let’s take a spin through the Chelsea FC community in cyberspace.
We begin with a very serious story, about winger Callum Hudson-Odoi.
According to ESPN, he has been accused of rape. The ESPN FC article states that their sources told them “police were called to his house by a woman who told police she had been raped.” Hudson-Odoi, the first Premier League player to test positive for coronavirus (and he has since recovered), was questioned by police, in regard to this incident, both yesterday and today.
He has posted bail and will return to police again in June. Via AFP, a police spokesperson said:
“When emergency services attended, a woman reported that she was raped. She was taken to hospital. A man was arrested at the scene on suspicion of rape. He was released from custody and bailed to return on a date in mid-June.”
Obviously, this is a massively serious story that greatly transcends mere football, and now is not the time for opining on it. We’ll see what happens as more facts are brought to light and the legal process plays out.
Elsewhere, the vote to return to training on Tuesday will no doubt elicit some strong opinions, encompassing a very wide spectrum of positions. Players will speak out, some already have and a couple days ago striker Tammy Abraham, did.
He says he really loves and misses football, but he only wants it to return if it’s safe to do so.
“I miss football,” he told the official Chelsea website.
“I just miss scoring goals, seeing the fans and being with my team-mates, having a smile on my face. If it’s safe to do so, I want to finish the job. If not, then we go into the next season.”
“Everyone can see what’s going on in the world. Everyone wants to come back to football.”
“I love football. It was my first full season at Chelsea, I was having a great season and I would love it to continue.”
Finally, 21-year-old American winger Christian Pulisic sung the praises of his former Borussia Dortmund teammate, Jadon Sancho in an interview with Sky Sports.
Will Sancho follow in his footsteps and move from the Signal Iduna Park to Stamford Bridge? The BVB star has been strongly linked in transfer rumors all spring, with several teams, including Chelsea and Manchester United, reportedly interested.
Pulisic discussed how great BVB is at developing talent.
“It’s one of the big reasons why I was really drawn there when I was very young. I think they (Dortmund) give younger players opportunities and it’s a great club to go and develop,” Pulisic told Sky Sports News.
“He (Sancho) was given an opportunity, just like I was, at a very high level, and they show you right away that they trust you and they’re going to give an equal opportunity to all the players.”
Any team that does acquire Sancho will likely have to pay Dortmund 100 million pounds for him. The development of Sancho sort of led to Pulisic seeing less playing time in the Bundesliga, and eventually, the time came for him to move on.
If Sancho does come to Chelsea, it will be interesting to see how Frank Lampard manages having him on the pitch along with Pulisic.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly contributes to WGN TV, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Now and SB Nation.
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