Lampard won’t abandon Chelsea but will Chelsea abandon Lampard?
Frank Lampard’s position is a complicated one. On one hand he’s fully dedicated to Chelsea and has repeatedly said that he wants to see his career out at Chelsea.
On the other hand, he’s not getting the same amount of money or time on his contract that a few other players at Chelsea FC are getting. As vice-captain and arguably as central to Chelsea’s remarkable success in the last four seasons as captain John Terry, surely Frank Lampard deserves to be on equal footing at Chelsea FC as Michael Ballack and his captain (let’s leave Shevchenko out of this one)?
Inter are offering him the money and a chance to play for Jose Mourinho again. A move to Inter will help Lampard extend his club and international career as well as help him improve as a player. And yet Chelsea only have to match Inter’s offer and give Lampard what he wants (or atleast some of what he wants) in order to get him to stay.
Earlier this season a similar situation developed at Manchester United with defender Wes Brown whose contract was coming to an end in June, and the defender was holding out for higher wages. United refused, remained steadfast but never said a word against the player (preferring to criticise the role of agents in such negotiations). While this went on off the pitch, on it Wes Brown kept turning in a string of solid performances in the absence of Gary Neville and showed, through actions and words, that he wanted nothing more than to stay at United but that he also wanted to be valued by the club.
In the end, United and Brown came to a compromise - both parties got what they wanted and Wes Brown is now (hopefully) at United for several years. It’s the right thing to do - he may not be the best player in his position but he is a valuable individual to have in the squad with his dedication to the club and his versatility in defence.
Lampard is an year away from a similar predicament. He won’t go the Webster way - there’s too much respect for that (or at least there should be) and Chelsea won’t sell Lampard to Inter when they can get another year out of him at the peak of his powers (nor do they want to be seen as caving into player demands). Like Jose Mourinho said - Inter will most likely get Lampard for free next summer.
But why must it come to that? Lampard is willing to stay and only wants to be valued according to his contributions and on a similar scale to how other top players at the club are valued. Chelsea arrived at a compromise with Terry and I hope they do the same with Lampard - otherwise in a day and age where we blame players for being mercenaries, we’ll be seeing a club that doesn’t take care of one of it’s own.
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You’re really wide of the mark here. He has been offered parity with the likes of JT and the main gripe is length of contract. He wants 5 and Chels are offering 4. Aged 30 I’ll let you decide what is right for the club.
You mention Utd not saying anything about broad but remaining steadfast as if intimating Chels has said anything about Lamps. All they have ever done is express as desire to see him sign a new contract and stay.
I’m a Chels fans and love Lamps to death but the club have handled this well while Lamps hasn’t.
Chelsea specifically have said that they will let Lampard go if he doesn’t accept the terms on the table. It’s more of an ultimatum and a warning.
Yes, I know what the media are saying about Lampard’s ‘wants’. You think Inter are going to offer him a 5 year contract? Hardly the case. Plus the extension is based on discussions a couple of seasons ago, and if Makelele can play this long (and Ballack can command his fees at this age) then my bet is so can Lampard.
My understanding is that money is an issue as well, otherwise Lampard would have signed on already. Terry took an awful long time to sign, and around that time bogus reports about him wanting a guaranteed coaching role sprung up. This sort of BS runs itself in the press. It’s always about image rights, appearance bonuses, basic salary, etc etc. He’s got 2-3 years left at the top level, a 4-year bumper contract would suit him just fine.
Vieni all’Inter e sarai felice!
Chelsea è stata una grande avventura e ti rimarrà nel cuore ma all’Inter avrai molti nuovi stimoli e ritroverai Josè.. inoltre potrai vinciere la Champions League…
after all what frank lampard did to chelsea and then chelsea go and deny him his contract, that man has given his blood and sweat for the team and they are just abandoning him, lampard, go to inter and never look back,
actually i think chelsea wanted to offer a 2 year contract and frank wanted a 4 year. He would be paid the same as terry. For a midfielder of frank’s style he still has at least 2-3 years left in him easily, that 4th year could come if he can keep fit but i think the main problem is that as we are now we have too many good CM’s that will all want a spot, i think it will depend on scolari, if he brings in an AM than lampard will go.
With Deco coming in, I think Chelsea have enough cover in the midfield. And if they dont allow Frank to go now, he might as well go at alesser price in the future.
What i can say is that Frank will only be a great player within now and 4yrs to come. Looking for 5yrs contract will be a waste of money. I will advice chelsea not to take that risk of signing 5yrs with him. Chelsea have over good midfield right now i can see chelsea regrecting loosing lampact to inter, only chelsea like him and he like chelsea. Now i will also advice chelsea to watch whosoever that is ready to give’s his best because of Jose in inter, should be allow to go. otherwise they will disapoint the club later run.
“Frank Lampard’s position is a complicated one. On one hand he’s fully dedicated to Chelsea and has repeatedly said that he wants to see his career out at Chelsea.”
Did you read that sentence back before you posted it Ahmed? Frank Lampard would like to stay at Chelsea but he also likes bags and bags of money… Ah yes, so complicated is the life of a footballer.
Nice comments - thought you might want to know (well this is what I have heard anyway, whether its a reliable source is another thing, ha) that Wes Brown was orignially on a shit contract with a bonus for each game he played (quite a high bonus at that). What with Gary Neville being injured for the whole season Wes basically played every game and was close to being the highest player of the season - I think this played a major part in the renewal of his contract. -anyone else hear about this at all, i’d love to know if it is true. Fair play to Wes tho either way, he had the season of his life.
Ben,
He was offered a contract with a 40k salary, he wanted more plus appearance bonuses. they eventually reached an agreement, it had little to do with the contract before since he was already being offered a new contract.