PREMIER LEAGUE
Lampard: “At Chelsea, I was desperate to sign Bellingham”
The English coach told former team mate Mikel John Obi in his podcast ‘The Obi One’ that he asked the Blues board to sign the current Madrid player, but he was deemed too expensive for his age.
Jude Bellingham is the big sensation of the first few months of the season in Spain. The Real Madrid player, recently awarded the Kopa award, has been overwhelmed by his great performances for Ancelotti’s team. His performances have been so breathtaking that many observersare asking why the midfielder was not signed by any big English club before he started to get noticed at Borussia Dortmund.
Frank Lampard, Chelsea coach between 2019 and 2021, has shed some light on this, along with former player Mikel John Obi, who is now making his first steps as a communicator with his new podcast: The Obi One. “When I was managing Chelsea I was desperate to bring in Bellingham. But I couldn’t get it through upstairs. They rejected the idea of paying £20 million (about €23M) for someone his age,” the Chelsea legend explained to Mikel John Obi, who couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
Lampard explained that he went to management at Stamford Bridge with several demands, mainly signings, but for one reason or another they did not pay any attention to him. He also asked to sign Haaland (still at RB Salzburg) and Declan Rice, an old demand of the English coach who wanted to bring back to Chelsea, after leaving the youth academy at Cobham.
The manager, who did Chelsea “a favor” by returning to lead the team in the final stretch of last season, also analyzed with his former team mate how he sees how his successor, Mauricio Pochettino is handling the team: “Chelsea wants to get back to the top and I’m quite I’m sure he’ll get them there,” he stated.
Lampard also shed light on his departure as a Chelsea player in 2014 after thirteen seasons at Stamford Bridge: “When I left Chelsea I didn’t want to leave, but they helped me do it. It was at the end of the season, we had one game left and in the middle of the week they told me that I was not going to get a new contract.” Some time later, Lampard left for MLS, joining New York City.