Lampard's Contract Talks Rumble On
Chelsea’s talismanic midfielder Frank Lampard has reportedly rejected a lucrative contract offer from the Blues, according to the News of the World.
In an attempt to secure the players peak years at Stamford Bridge, Chief Executive Peter Kenyon offered to make the England International the highest paid-player at the club, exceeding the wages of the expensive and controversial recruits Andriy Shevchenko and Michael Ballack.
With pre-season training around the corner the Chelsea exec’s will be in a state of panic at Lampard’s decision, especially as the player’s former boss Claudio Ranieri has already listed Lampard as his main transfer target at Juventus.
Transfer speculation had also been rife about a possible move of Lampard to Catalan giants Barcelona as early as from January and today’s revelation shall surely spark the interests of Barca’s coach Rijkaard, already a big admirer of the prolific midfielder.
A possible swap deal between the Spanish club and Chelsea, involving Lampard and Deco, has already been mooted in the past weeks; however Chelsea insiders have indicated that one Jose Mourniho would be loath to lose one of the main cornerstones of his successful team.
The Chelsea boss, although having enjoyed a successful spell with Deco in the past, sees no advantage from trading a proven, leading player of the English league for a player with question-marks over his ability to adapt to the Premiership.
Although Chelsea have yet to make an official statement concerning Lampard’s immediate future, the payer himself has hardly dampened the transfer rumours with recent remarks over his current contractual situation.
"Talks have been going on for over a year now and nothing is really decided," he said. "I said after the FA Cup final that I wanted to stay, but it is down to them”.
It seems Chelsea’s failure to secure Lampard’s future earlier in the year could come back to haunt them. The potential fall-out from a prospective Lampard move could be vast as Mourinho, already critical of his superiors, would see this eventuality as a mark of the Chelsea board’s ineptitude.
The Sun are reporting that he has interrupted his vacations to rush back to London, insisting that Chelsea secure Lampard to a new contract as quickly as possible.
goal.com