We don't even know where to start with this one. While Paul Merson is no doubt entertaining, his lack of footballing knowledge can be astounding at times. For a man who makes his living talking about football, he doesn't really know all that much about it.
That is especially true when speaking about football outside of England. Merson has a tendency to completely disregard every other league, assuming that no foreign team could cut the mustard in the Premier League.
This was obvious when he was speaking about Callum Hudson-Odoi and his situation at Chelsea. The 18-year old winger tried to force through a move to Bayern Munich in January, with the Bundesliga champions offering him the first team opportunities he has been starved of in London.
But seapking on talkSPORT earlier today, Merson said he thinks Hudson-Odoi would be foolish to leave a big club like Chelsea for the likes of Bayern Munich.
“I wouldn’t leave, Chelsea is a top club and he’s playing with top players.” 🔵
“Bayern are an ageing team, they are not the club they were 5-6 years ago.” 🇩🇪
Paul Merson tells @talkSPORTDrive that Hudson-Odoi shouldn’t leave Chelsea. pic.twitter.com/ekTsWUZsl8— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) March 9, 2019
I wouldn't leave. Chelsea is a top club, he's playing with top players at the moment. You go abroad, you go to Bayern Munich, and I think that Bayern Munich is an ageing football team. I don't think they're the team they were four, five, six years ago.
You go there at 18-years of age and you've got to be the next Ribery or Robben straight away, wow that's a big ask.
Ok so basically he would be better off sitting on the bench at Chelsea, a team who are struggling to finish in the top four in England, than starting for the six0time defending Bundesliga champions? Fair enough.
Merson then goes on to talk about Dortmund for some reason, and contradicts his point about Bayern being a fading team by saying they clawed back 'a thousand point' deficit in the Bundesliga title race.
You've only got to look at Dortmund, they're having a melt up. They've gone out against Tottenham, they're joint points with Bayern Munich who were like a thousand points behind them not long ago. They'll be getting on the young lad's backs.
I think it's a good experience, but it's alright if it's going well, if it's not going well... Stay at a team.
Just to compound things, he compares Bayern Munich to Crystal Palace. You couldn't make it up.
It's like Loftus-Cheek. People say he should go back to Palace? Come on. You're going to go back and play for Palace and play with 35% of the ball every week. You get the ball probably 25 times every week, otherwise you're sitting deep at the edge of your box.
Stay there. You're going to get in the team sooner or later, you're going to play until you're 30. You want to win things.
If he wants to win things, he would probably be better off at the team who has won 28 league titles and five European Cups.
It is attitudes like the one held by Merson that have long stopped young English players travelling abroad. The current generation of young players seem to be bucking that trend, however, with the likes of Jadon Sancho and Reiss Nelson thriving in the Bundesliga.
