Chelsea fight to keep Frank Lampard as Italians insist he wants to come to Inter
Chelsea fight to keep Frank Lampard as Italians insist he 'wants to come to Inter'
By Oliver Brown
Chelsea intend to make one more trophy signing this summer following their capture of Deco from Barcelona - a priority heightened yesterday as Frank Lampard's departure drew ever nearer, with an Inter Milan director claiming that the England midfielder wanted to join them.
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It is understood that Robinho, who has been linked to a £30?million transfer from Real Madrid, is not on the list of transfer targets drawn up by Frank Arnesen, Chelsea's sporting director. Kaka, having been mentored by new Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari with Brazil, is another marquee name in the equation for the club even though they refute the assertion by Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani that they have made an "astronomical" bid for the playmaker, valued in some quarters at £50 million.
Over on the black-and-blue side of Milan, the pressure from Inter upon Lampard grew ever greater yesterday as Gabriele Oriali, an Inter director, said: "What is certain is that the player wants to come to Inter. We have done everything that was in our means." But he added: "We cannot take him away from Chelsea by force."
That rhetoric is set to be matched in the next few days by a firm second bid for Lampard of £10 million, after the Italian champions' original offer of £8 million was rejected by Chelsea. The difficulties for Inter are stark: they cannot rely on the midfielder buying himself out of his contract through Article 17 of Fifa's player regulations.
Chelsea expect Lampard to honour the one year he has left as he continues to turn down their four-year contract extension by demanding a five-year deal.
