Lampard in at Derby as Spurs get more time

FRANK LAMPARD has agreed to become the new Derby County manager. And, as revealed by

Sportsmail yesterday, the 39year-old will be assisted at Pride Park by Chelsea Under 18s coach Jody Morris. Lampard will be tasked with keeping the Championship side in the hunt for promotion, while shaping a veteran squad on a budget. Derby finished sixth in the season just gone, but lost to Fulham in the play-off semi-finals and work is needed on a team populated by players in their thirties. Replacing Gary Rowett, who left to join Stoke nine days ago, will see Lampard take his first step into management. The 106-cap England international walked away from offers tabled by Oxford and Ipswich to wait for the right opportunity, but considers the prospects at Derby too good to turn down. Meanwhile, the English Football Association have given Tottenham more time to decide whether to renew their occupancy of Wembley amid fears that their new stadium will not be ready for the 2018-19 season. Spurs were due to tell the FA today if they wanted to continue using the national stadium next season. However, Sportsmail believes

the deadline has been moved back two weeks, to coincide with the announcement of the Premier League fixtures. The FA declined to comment while Tottenham were reluctant to rule out the possibility of renewing the tenancy agreement, despite work on their new £800million home continuing at a frantic pace. But senior football sources are beginning to question whether the 62,000-seat stadium will be ready even after a series of away games in August and the international break at the start of September. The Premier League will allow Tottenham to play their opening three games away from home when the new season starts on August 11, having made allowances for West Ham, Liverpool and Blackpool in the past. But if the stadium is not ready by the time the domestic season resumes after England’s European Championship fixture with Switzerland on September 11, it will raise a number of problems. Premier League rules dictate that the location of a club’s first home game must be their home ground for the remainder of the season. Changing that rule, and allowing Tottenham to play a few games at Wembley, could be discussed at next week’s Premier League summer meeting.