Chelsea legend Frank Lampard, the club’s all-time leading scorer, is in his second stint in charge, for three more games. After that, the current caretaker boss will give way to Mauricio Pochettino. During his first tenure, when he was the permanent manager at Chelsea, Lampard tried to sign Premier League goal scoring record breaker Erling Haaland.
Lampard made the admission at a press conference today, ahead of his side facing Haaland and the rest of Manchester City (another former club of Lampard by the way) on Sunday afternoon.
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“I don’t know whether he would have decided to come here anyway but I was a big fan of that (bringing Haaland over),” said Lampard.
“There are some of those that happen, aren’t there, that people know about or it could have been this way. People talk a lot about mistakes or things that could have been in football. Whether he would have come here, I don’t know but I was pushing big and on a few other players at the time. But he was the outstanding one.
“Was it close? He’ll only know the answer to that. What stage did it get to? From our point, I was certainly pushing it. I’m not sure what the appetite was everywhere else in the club to do it.
“The competition was big to take him because he was an outstanding player and I think there was a buyout clause at the time which was relatively reasonable, maybe, considering the player. So all those things. I don’t have enough detail to say how close it was, it’s by the by, really.”
Like everybody else who is paying attention this season, Lampard is in awe of what the big Norwegian has been accomplishing this season. He’s the first player to ever win PWA Premier League Player of the Year via unanimous vote.
Lampard continued:
“I think he’s special, I thought he’d adapt straight away and show his level. I didn’t consider it that closely but with the level of player and his record of scoring, firstly in Austria, secondly for his country and in the Bundesliga, which is not an easy league.
“To come into a really good unit already is a recipe to really help him, and then the rest is just credit to himself and the team around him. It is not an easy hindsight answer, I’ve got real respect for the player.”
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He’s written for numerous publications, including the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. He regularly appears on NTD News and WGN News Now. Follow the website on Twitter and Instagram.