Richard Buxton: Hudson-Odoi makes Sarri look silly

In the eyes of Maurizio Sarri, nothing can be garnered from watching international football.

Chelsea's beleaguered manager reasoned that he did not need to watch a single minute of last summer's World Cup because club would ultimately trump country on the pitch.

But Sarri needs to rethink that hypothesis in what little remains of his Stamford Bridge tenure.

Callum Hudson-Odoi has exposed the Italian's season-long folly in just 10 days with England, culminating in yesterday morning's (Singapore time) 5-1 thrashing of Montenegro.

The winger is good enough to lead the line in a Euro 2020 qualifier but supposedly ill-equipped to handle the pressure of playing at the highest level with the Blues.

Go figure.

Rhyme and reason do not often compute with life in west London, where patience is as short-lived as the success that became customary under Roman Abramovich's stewardship.

Yet Sarri's continual argument that affording Hudson-Odoi the responsibility of regular first team football, at 18 years old, is "dangerous" carries increasingly less credibility.

The teenager came through a first start for his country with flying colours at Gradski Stadion Podgorica.

By his own admission, Gareth Southgate would have preferred to have kept the teenager in England's Under-21 set-up during this international break but still had the courage of his convictions to entrust him to join those leading from the front against the Montenegrins.

Ironically, Sarri's apprehension to test the Bayern Munich target outside of the Europa League actually stood him in good stead.

Earlier this month, he came through a first truly hostile environment when the Blues faced Dynamo Kiev at the NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium.

Then as now, he endured racist abuse from the terraces and refused to flinch. Instead, Hudson-Odoi approached the uncomfortable situation with a maturity that belied his age.

Sarri's assertion that such brutal backwaters are a safer proving ground for the homegrown youngster's development than more sanitised domains such as Anfield and Old Trafford, however, is an indictment of his continual misjudgmentat the Stamford Bridge helm.

Experience continues to supersede exuberance for the chain-smoking sexagenarian.

The genuine threat of becoming another mere statistic in Abramovich's revolving-door policy sees familiarity favoured at a time when Champions League qualification ebbs further from reach.

Except recent history shows that such known quantities also carry little guarantees for Sarri.

He has already lost one battle of wills with the Londoners' dressing room.

Kepa Arrizabalaga's defiance in the League Cup final defeat by Manchester City publicly undermined his authority.

Marginalising Hudson-Odoi risks further insubordination, this time from outside that inner sanctum.

Affording him less than two hours of English Premier League game time throughout the current campaign has been a source of bafflement and anger for Chelsea supporters.

His international exploits are only set to intensify the clamour for an overdue first league start, especially ahead of Sunday's trip to a struggling Cardiff City.

Southgate, whose faith in youth is a recurring theme in England's resurgence, did not consider Hudson-Odoi incapable of performing on the biggest stage.

Neither do Bayern, whose interest in the player is certain to be reignited, alongside several of Europe's elite clubs.

Sarri is unlikely to be hanging around in the English capital beyond the end of this season.

Unless he finally sees the error of his ways, Hudson-Odoi will be threatening to do the same.

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Callum Hudson-Odoi's (18 years and 138 days) outing against Montenegro makes him the second-youngest player to start a competitive fixture for the Three Lions. Former England captain Wayne Rooney (17 years and 160 days) holds the record after making his competitive debut against Turkey in 2003.