Nobody Wants Frank Lampard

By: Daryl | July 1st, 2007

Frank Lampard Jr. Poor Frank Lampard just got a major slap in the face. The 29 year old midfielder has been stalling over signing a new Chelsea contract, apparently turning his nose up at a reported £110,000 a week and demanding to be paid the same as top earners Michael Ballack and Andriy Shevchenko, who despite failing to do any on pitch business are pocketing a healthy £130,000 a week.

So Frank’s been offering himself around Europe’s big boys, looking for a big money move. Unfortunately, according to an unnamed Barcelona executive, the big boys aren’t interested. “There is no other option,” the mysterious executive told The Guardian. “He has been offered to us, Milan, Inter and Real Madrid. Basically all of the big clubs. But none are interested. We are the same as those clubs are, we’re looking for a player who is more creative and has a greater technique than Lampard. So it looks like he will go nowhere.”

Ouch.

In all fairness, Lampard is very solid player. A hardworking, technincally sound box to box player with an eye for goal. But the Barcelona executive is right. He’s not in the Ronaldinho, Zidane, Maradona creative category and it’s ludicrous for him to be demanding ridiculous sums or to be expecting serious interest from major European teams after a fairly average season.

I can understand him wanting one last big contract before he hits the big three-oh, but last time I checked £110,000 a week is pretty decent compensation.

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Category: England, English Premier League, Spain La Liga

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practice squad

He needs more money to feed his pie habit. I always thought of Lampard as a defensive midfielder with a heavy shot.
yass

my dear u r not a legend.you are getting 220000 pouds/week and you dont find it right. just look around yourself and youll find players more competent than you but receiving very much less than you.ya you guess it right am talking about bullard, zokora,drogba,gilberto silva,carrick,mascherano,xabi alonso,and many more...
dont think of yourself to b a super star coz according to me you dont seem to be one.A star is Beck,gerrard and not you... so just accept the fact my friend... fact is fact...
ben

now i'm no math whiz, but 7% of 90 is roughly 6 goals.. there's no way you can tell me that's an actual statistics. There's no possible way fat frank has only had six deflected goals in six years. sure people exaggerate, but one deflected goal a season does not get you that kind of reputation.

Based on the previous season, sure, ballack and sheva didn't perform well enough to warrant being paid more than lampard. But nobody who's ever watched a football game would ever tell you that frank lampard is a better player than either of them. Barca and co. seem to agree.
Linda

I'm with you, fam. If the management are stupid enough to ship Deco out and replace him with Lampard then somebody is too moronic to live.
fam

He's been great for Chelsea, but I'm not sure he's a guy who would do well playing in Spain or Italy. I'm a Barcelona supporter and was a little concerned they might try to ship Deco out and replace him with Frank. He's a good shooter, works hard and distributes the ball well but he's not very creative and I just don't see him working as well in a system like Barcelona's that demands technical ability above all else. He seems better suited to the Premiership.
vic

"He barely deserves his current wage!!"

In six seasons at Chelsea, Lampard has missed a mere 5 regular season matches and scored 61 goals. In other competitions for Chelsea during that span he put another 29 goals in, for a total average of 15 goals per year. And the Guardian reported in October that fewer than 7% of those came off deflections (http://tinyurl.com/2z86lj). He has 51 assists during the same period. He also holds the Premiereship record for consecutive appearances at 164.

How is this not value for his current contract?
Drabik

Defences just need to learn how to play against Lampard....

If it looks like he is going to shoot, move out of the way, then there is less chance of deflections and the goalkeeper (whoever it may be) will probably save it.

I think Lampard is a good player, dont get me wrong, but he fits in at Chelsea, but Chelsea are unlike any other team and so I think moving would be a massive mistake for Lampard. He is certainly not worth the money he wants. He barely deserves his current wage!!

Chelsea should experiment with Mikel and Ballack in the centre and then decide whether they are willing to pay the dramatic wages.
Laurie

He picked the wrong year to be for sale. Doesn't this seem to be happening everywhere? There seems to be a lot more balking at both outrageous transfer fees and outrageous salary demands this year than last. I think it's what David Trezeguet went through also before deciding that...oh, wait, forget that little derogatory gesture and the fact that he said he could never stay... In fact, the Juventus offer really wasn't all that bad.
Peter

the dude has an absolute cannon and he shifts defenses by his mere presence within 40 yards. chelsea is talking big, but boy would i love to see peter chec trying to stop some of Lampard's shots in a game situ.
Isaiah

Not only that, but News of the World is reporting that he turned down a deal that would have made him the highest paid player in Chelsea history at something above 120,000 pounds a week, which translates to about 12 million US dollars a year. I don't know how trustworthy NotW is, but that's fantastic money no matter where you are, in no matter what sport. Why would you turn that down?

Whatever his agent thinks he's doing, he's an idiot. And so is Frank for going along with it.
Ian

This is where I'm supposed to feel bad for a guy whose annual salary I don't make in my lifetime, right? Take the contract, Frank ... the rest of the teams have spoken - you're not exactly a transfer gem. If you don't want to be stuck on a retirement team outside of Europe (for significantly less than the amount you're currently balking at), steal a pen and sign that paper.
V-SPOT

PONCE. what a ponce.

If even the execs at europes top clubs, who are capable of some atrocious signings, can see that Frank isn't world class then WHY OH WHY can't McClaren see the light?
Trent

I can't imagine living on $220,000 a week. Maybe if my wife got a second job or something.

As for Frank, to a degree I can sympathize with him wanting to get more than Ballack and Sheva, but my man, just sign the damn contract, make millions of pounds, and cement yourself as a Blues legend. Is it all really that unbearable?