It was pretty obvious that the moment Chelsea and Frank Lampard announced he won’t be renewing his contract, we’ll have plenty of bidders, but few expected Manchester United to be one of them.
Alex Ferguson knows what he wants, and I guess he likes his central midfielders experienced and old. If they come for free, with an impressive salary let’s not forget, that’s even better.
According to Lampard’s agent, despite recent rumors that there might be still a chance for the English international captain to remain with the club, there is no contract offer from Chelsea and Lampard won’t be staying with the club he has been a part of for over a decade next season, free to look for a new place of work.
Unlike some clubs would like, Chelsea aren’t interested in selling him in January and making some sort of cash on the 34 year old and the player is now free to negotiate contracts with other clubs. It might be worth mentioning that Lampard will be turning 35 just as his contract runs out, and there’s not much money to be made by selling him. He’s more useful staying with the club till the end of the season, as he’s shown in his last few appearances.
The initial rumors suggested Lampard might spend his final seasons away from the Premier League, as no real offers seemed to be emerging. There were talks of the MLS and China. There were talks of an offer from Italy or Spain as well. No, no one linked Lampard to PSG and his former manager, Carlo Ancelotti.
If having Paul Scholes (retiring at the end of the season), Ryan Giggs (no one knows) and Michael Carrick isn’t enough, Alex Ferguson would like to add even more experience to his midfield, but he’ll probably have to wait until the end of the season, which means Lampard, a Chelsea legend in his playing days, might step in for Paul Scholes once the redhead retires for a second time.
Despite his age, and thanks to his monopoly over the penalty taking in Chelsea, Frank Lampard has six goals in 12 league matches this season, and is the highest scoring midfielder (with 132 goals) in the history of the Premier League.