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Lee Johnson has confirmed a rumour that was going around on social media in the week: that Chelsea winger Callum Hudson-Odoi was close to being snapped up by the Robins on loan in the summer.

The £40m rated attacker, who is currently being courted by Bayern Munich, made his England debut only five days ago and is well known to have made his first start for the England senior side ahead of starting a Premier League game for Chelsea.

Bristol City already have three players on loan from Chelsea and it could have been four, as Lee Johnson admitted during his pre-Sheffield United press conference.

We asked if it was true that the 19-year-old had even visited Bristol last summer ahead of making the move to the West Country.

"There's a little bit of truth, yeah," said Johnson on Wednesday afternoon.

"Obviously there are agents and he was a player that we were very keen to bring to the football club.

"His brother is a family friend of mine as well.

"Yeah, he's a top talent. And he scored two or three in one of the games I was watching - and I thought 'oh no'.

"Sarri had just entered the fray and he made a fantastic first impression and it probably killed our chances of bringing him in," explained Johnson.

Bradley Hudson-Odoi, Callum's brother, is a non-league striker and has played against Gary Johnson's teams before, including against Torquay United earlier this season back in October as the 30-year-old came off the bench against the Gulls.

"I'm delighted for him," said Johnson of the Chelsea's success since then. "It just goes to show how much talent there is in England.

"I really enjoyed the England U21s game [at Ashton Gate] and I was really proud that Lloyd Kelly played and played so well in that game, and obviously Jay Dasilva closely as well, even though he's not ours.

"I thought they were both excellent in what is a really good age group moving forward.

"It really shows England as a nation and as a set of football coaches in a really good light," explained Johnson.

Bristol City play Sheffield United at 3pm on Saturday.