Remember the press conference Chelsea had set for today? Well, Robinho isn’t on his way (yet). The press conference was to announce that Frank Lampard has signed a new five-year deal with the Blues.
Yes, I know, not quite as exciting as the prospect of Robinho donning the blue kit.
Lampard’s new deal means he will be sticking around a while and fighting for playing time in a loaded Chelsea midfield that includes Deco, Michael Ballack, Michael Essien, Joe Cole, John Obi-Mikel and Shaun-Wright Phillips. It will be interesting to watch Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari juggle all that talent in midfield.
What do you think of Lampard’s new deal? Shocked he didn’t go to Inter? Think it’s not that big a deal because Lampard is overrated? Think Lampard is due to have an MVP season?
Share your thoughts below.
I find it very annoying at how much talent teams like Chelsea and Man-U steal from the rest of the Premiership. Looking at Chelsea’s midfield annoys the hell out of me, because I think how much better the quality of the league would be if a couple of those guys (Lampard,Deco,Ballack, Essien, J. Cole, Obi-Mikel) were on different teams.
20 goals from the midfield for five seasons – and you think that is overrated? Get a clue, Ted.
Honestly, is Lampard a better option in midfield than Deco, Ballack, or Essien?
I think he is overrated.
Glad to see Robinho stay. Like Paul said, he was the total difference maker in that game yesterday.
I’m with mig22.
Good to see Lamps back, no doubt, but nervous about who might be leaving come January.
Mikel will get his time.
I see no reason to believe they will be better than ManU.
And I’m no ManU fan, either.
correction: “pretty standard fare”
Scott, it’s one thing to be a Chelsea-hater and cry about the money spent…that’s pretty standard fair. But considering they lost the CL final on penalties and lost the league, essentially on goal differential…do you really think they won’t grab silverware this year?
They have bought 2 players and sold about 5 this year and Deco and Bosingwa were not ‘monster’ payouts. Last year they bought one significant player. Liverpool the last two years and ManU last year were the folks on the spending spree. I don’t see the big deal and I think it’s a bit dated to cry about their spending…that’s past news by 3 years and over 5 transfer seasons is not out of line with other top European clubs (who had a big headstart on payroll to begin with).
I expect Chelsea will make one more big signing this year and sell one or two more players to defray the cost.
Chelski is a joke.
All of that money spent and no CL or EPL silverware again this year, I’m sure. Is Deco really going to make them better than ManU? Really?
Maybe someday Abramovich gets his oil assets seized by the Russians and this nightmare stops.
“a loaded Chelsea midfield that includes Deco, Michael Ballack, Michael Essien, Joe Cole, John Obi-Mikel and Shaun-Wright Phillips”
Don’t forget Florent Malouda! *snicker*
Seriously, though, as a Chelsea fan, I’m very happy about this. I’ll worry about the 4th and 5th year of his contract when we get there. For now, I know that Lamps is the second best goal scorer on the squad, and they needed to keep him to have any chance of winning anything this year.
Ives…I don’t think Robinho is leaving Real Madrid.
He was the difference maker in their game against Eintracht Frankfurt. I just can’t see them giving him up.
5 years? He is going to be 35 years old when he’s done. WOW. I want his agent. What are Chelsea doing?
Agreed – As long as the pound stays stronger than the Euro english players aren’t going anywhere. If the Euro comes out the stronger currency, by some stroke of economic collapse in England, then those same players will flood into the continental talent pool.
While it seems odd to keep Lampard with the signing of Deco and an already stacked midfield, it makes sense. To seriously challenge for multiple trophies, teams need depth. Ballack has shown a tendency towards fragility and Scolari wants flexibility in formations.
As long as England’s top teams continue to pay the top wages you aren’t going to see English players moving abroad.
Good luck to Scolari to keep all those guys happy…I wonder who’ll be mad and on the move during the winter window.
I’m surprised that Jon-obi Mikel EVER gets playing time in that midfield. He is a loose cannon that doesn’t seem to have much talent except for getting yellow/red cards. In fact, it looks like every tackle he goes in for, he is trying to hurt the opposing player and does not try to play the ball. I wouldn’t even consider him a player that someone would have to “compete” for playing time except that he got too much playing time last year to begin with.
In other news, USA traded Michael Orozco and the right to cap the next Mexican-American down the pipeline for Edgar Castillo. FIFA’s greasy palms were further greased to make this legit. Sven failed to watch today’s match (he was out on a date), and so sanctioned the deal.
I was hoping Chelsea was announcing that US Soccer had shipped Nowak to the Galaxy for a bag of balls and 3 sets of cones.
i don’t think it’s a big deal because no one really honors their contract anymore these days anyway. he’ll be gone to inter next year.
Lampard staying at Chelsea is an example of how one of England’s top players did not move abroad to a foreign league to ply his trade.
England needs to push its players to develop abroad in order to increase their technical skills. More young players in European academies would be very good.