Lampard - Definitely No U-Turn!

@finn-fan Disrespectful from the club? How so?

@true2blue Well, I think after all he has done to CFC the club should have offered him a chance to retire at Chelsea as it is his wish... With clubs terms. Not offering anything is disrespectful especially when he is not exactly useless.

maybe we are trying to get our house in order (Financially). Lampard is on 150k per week and FFP is by the corner, hence the club's reluctance to extend his contract (IMO). Lampard on the other hand won't even consider a pay cut. As much as i'd love him to stay, i believe this time the club has made the right decision. So long Fr8nk L8mp8rd.

@KAKUfrank, sorry i dont see anything disrepectful, its the way Lamps and the media paint the situation, same english media that have been the advocate of keeping Lamapard away from the national team, when it happened to Scholes at United before he was recalled everything was hunky dory, no? Players come and go in every club and i'm very sure there must be a very tangible reason the club is taking this step, I want Lamps to stay too but stay or not he can not play for Chelsea for eternity, few months ago Drogba was in same situation, what did he do? took it on the chin and move on and last time i checked drog is still a chelsea legend today. What i'm saying is the club has not make any pronouncement that would cast aspersions on the legendary status of Lamps apart from refusing to give him a new contract so i dont see anything disrespectful on the part of the management.

I'm not trying to be the club's advocate here, but what if there was an offer on the table for Lamps before which he refused and now the offer is no more there? what if there is more to this saga than just a contract renewal? what if overall the board is acting in the best interest of club?.

If the reasons were privately discussed then I think for Lampard's agent to continue trying to paint the club in a bad light is more direspectful than what the club are doing.This could very well be the AVB thing coming to bite Lampard in the behind.

I'm not saying refusing to extend Lampard's contract is a good move, but let's just be a bit more careful/mindful of how we castigate and fault every tough step taken or decision made by the club... There just may be more to it than we are aware of....

News out that Red Nose wants Frank to become a devil

Lampard had contributed tremendously for this club..that is undisputed...but should that stop chelsea or us from moving away from him...Definitely NO....chelsea had taken a bold and correct decision.

Lampard had contributed tremendously for this club..that is undisputed...but should that stop chelsea or us from moving away from him...Definitely NO....chelsea had taken a bold and correct decision.

I don't see anything disrespectful about the reluctance to pay crazy wages to a player who is past it, no matter if he is a legend or not. And it doesn't mean that Lampard can't stay connected with the club either. He looks like he is smart enough to take up a managerial position in a few years.

YaY

You have to wonder though, why did Lamps agent refute such talk the other day when he agreeing now?? This guy and his agent are pathetic,good thing he leaves, we can't have that in the club

People are getting everything wrong. Totally wrong. The only thing similar to Drogba and Lampard's situation is the fact that the have 6 months left. Other than that, every other thing is different. Drogba was the first of the 4 Musketters (Cech, Terry, Lampard and Drogba) to depart and we of course know all the reasons. He scored arguably 2 of the most important goals in Chelsea's history. The departure of Drogba was supposed to lead to this new way of playing football - which we have achieved, BUT HAVE RECORDED NOT SUCCESS IN. We've dropped out of UCL, probably won't win the PL (maybe we could have had a chance if we bought Demba Ba in the summer); lost the world cup and lost the community shield. What departure actually proved was we let quality (no matter how inconsistent he was) depart without actually having the ready made replacement in there of which we suffered THIS SEASON. What Chelsea should have learnt from that departure is YOU DON'T LET QUALITY GO WITHOUT replacing it. What irks me is we don't learn anything and what irritates me is we don't learn. Till today, Terry is our best center back. Till today Cech is the best keeper. Following the decisions in regards to Ballack, Drogba and now Lampard, will the CLUB BE STUPID TO LET OUR BEST CB leave next year without a replacement because till today - Luiz, Cahill, and Ivanovic are not better? Most likely, we will follow such decisions again. Frank Lampard has declined as a player. NO DOUBT. However, he is still the BEST CENTRAL MIDFIELDER (NOT DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDER) in Chelsea for the PIVOT. Reason being we don't even have a CM that can play there properly in his absence. When Raul was leaving, they was a Higuain. When Dinho was leaving they was a Messi. The departure of Ballack to us to 2nd in the PL. The departure of Drogba took us to 4th in the PL. Can you imagine if Frank Lampard wasn't available against Everton? Frank has played for 12 seasons in Chelsea. He has a legendary status like a few players. Raul has gone. Del Piero left. Dinho, Pep and a bunch of other players left. It will be in Chelsea's best interest for him to leave in peace. Ferdinand is also in his last year of his contract. However, there isn't any circus surrounding his contract situation unlike Ashley Cole and Lampard at Chelsea. And yes it is disrespectful. How can Benitez come out in front of people and tell the whole world that Chelsea have informed Frank lampard and Ashley Cole that they'd leave in the summer???? Who does that?

Lamps is a giant. I am sad he is leaving...if he goes to Manure...I will go and stand outside cobham with a tear stained face and a placard displaying my anguish...they could have made him an offer...not just discarding him like he is Malouda...

gian,i personally would have loved him to stay atleast til next season but the board have made this decision in the best interest of the club,the board has held preliminary talks with him and resolved that the negatives of keeping lampard outweighs the positive..the best we can do as fans is to wish him all the best as he undertakes a new challenge..i hope he does not join manure or any other epl side,it would be weird to see superfrankie play against us

Let's see how much Fergie will pay him...

@Gian-Franco, if Lampard chose to sign for united that would his decision not the club and I believe he has every right to sign for whoever he wants, but that decision will definitely tell us more about super Frank.

Some of you seem to read only the articles that say that Frank don't want a pay cut. But there are also reports that Frank offers them a pay cut. No one of us knows what happened behind the scences so please stop speculating about the reasons. Also the club said that the salary and a pay cut were never discussed. So stop asserting the contrary! And why are you picking on Frank and his agent about all the rumours and reports? Benitez was the first one who came up with the no-future-for-lampard-at-chelsea-thing. Then there was the report from an italian newspaper about an interview with Franks manager. Kutner explained that this interview wouldn't exist, just because everyone got crazy about this. Then the newspapers said that chelsea could change their mind and give Lampard a new deal. Kutner then again clarified the situation by saying there would be no way back, just because everyone was confused about this. Frank was silent all the time. He just explained his emotional goal celebration with the fans. So what do you want? They are not trying to paint the club in a bad light. They are not trying to play the victim. And they are not pathetic but you are! STOP MAKING FRANK THE BOOMAN!