Chelsea tell Lampard to forget Inter
Chelsea last night risked deepening their differences with Frank Lampard by publicly telling the unsettled midfielder to forget about a summer transfer to Inter Milan.
In an interview published on Chelsea’s official website, chief executive Peter Kenyon insisted long-serving Lampard would stay at the club next season even if he refused to sign a new contract.
Lampard’s current deal expires next summer, when he will be entitled to leave for free, and discussions have so far failed to produce an agreement. Inter, now managed by former Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho, are keen to take advantage by signing Lampard now for a cut-price fee.
But Kenyon yesterday declared their latest bid, reported to be worth £7.9m, would be rejected, and made clear that Chelsea were in no mood to improve their contract offer or let Lampard leave.
We have always maintained that we want Frank to stay and an offer was made to that effect. That offer is still on the table,” said Kenyon. “Frank is under contract and he still has one year to run on that. We’d like to hope we can reach an agreement but if we can’t we have always worked on the basis that Frank sees out the terms of his contract.
“Chelsea has made its position very clear to Inter and they have come back now with a financial offer. That will be rejected.”
Commenting on Inter’s offer in a separate interview later in the day, Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck added: “The day before yesterday they sent us
a letter asking if we would talk to them about Frank Lampard.
“We responded and said ‘no’. Yesterday they sent a letter with a cash offer for Lampard and again we responded. We are not interested.
“We would like Frank Lampard to stay at Chelsea for the long-term. We have offered him what we believe to be a very good new contract.”
Lampard is reported to want a five-year contract worth £140,000 per week, while Chelsea are only prepared to offer the 30-year-old a four-year-deal.
New Blues boss Luiz Felipe Scolari on Tuesday confidently announced Lampard had told him he wanted to stay. But within hours of that press conference Lampard’s agent, Steve Kutner, had released a statement insisting the deal remained “completely unresolved” due to the long running disagreement over the terms.