The honeymoon is over for Chelsea kids but Lampard knows the feeling
FRANK LAMPARD is not about to shield his young players from the magnitude of the task in front of them.
First they need to put away Manchester United tomorrow night if they want to consolidate their grip on a Champions League spot.
Looking ahead, the likes of Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Fikayo Tomori and Reece James, who until now have been the story of this season for Chelsea, will need to rise to a new challenge: the summer arrivals.
A transfer ban and an inability to do business in
January has provided an incubation period for the Chelsea academy, allowing them to develop unhindered. The announcement of the £33million signing of Hakim Ziyech from Ajax this summer was just the start. From here on in, normal Chelsea life resumes.
Lampard knows this feeling. He was a decent midfielder when Roman Abramovich took over the club in 2003. Summer after summer the club would sign star midfielders — Tiago, Michael Essien, Michael
Ballack. Now he can admit that he wasn’t always keen on the new signings in his position.
‘Yeah, in truth [I wasn’t],’ he said. ‘I think that’s a good thing. You need to react in the right way. I certainly felt it. And as I felt it more and more, I probably got better at accepting it.
‘When I was young I was probably a bit fearful of it. As I got older I probably took on the challenges with a bit more maturity and felt, “What can I do to show that I deserve to be in the team?”
‘Those challenges were good. Looking back they were part of the process of making me.
Because when you set something in front of someone, they either go for it or they back off from it. And I think I did take that challenge on. Of course the players now have to take that on constantly and squads look different these days.
‘There’s more competition, there are bigger squads, there’s probably more demands physically than there’s ever been. They need to understand, these younger players, that they’re part of a squad that wants to go somewhere. And show that they deserve to be right in the middle of it.’
The summer should see fresh arrivals — Jadon Sancho is still
on the club’s radar, as is centre-forward Moussa Dembele from Lyon. ‘Top clubs will always be looking to improve,’ said Lampard. ‘That will be a challenge that’s laid down in front of the young players and one they just have to react positively to. It’s part and parcel of playing here.
‘The young players have made a great impact. We’ve had a reliance on them to a degree because we knew we couldn’t bring anyone in. Throughout the season we knew there were going to be difficult times. You look at Tammy Abraham at the moment and maybe Mason Mount. I think the break was particularly good for them — they can come back and hopefully show more levels in their game.
‘They’ve had tough times recently and it’s up to them now to show they are a big part of our plans no matter who we bring in.’
For now the task is beating United. A nine-point gap, which Chelsea can open up on them, would make it tough for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team to overhaul Lampard’s in the race for the top four, or the top five, if Manchester City are banned from European competition. Lampard will impress on his team that this week — with both United and Tottenham coming to Stamford Bridge — is when they will really show whether they have the fight to make the top four.
‘I don’t mind the reality of it, I like the reality of it,’ he said. ‘I think the players should know that this is what it’s all about. If you want to make the top four, we’re in a good position. And we can affect it seriously over the next seven days. That’s not bad to have that in your mind.
We should be slightly on edge. Training should be slightly on edge like it was today and people are being tense and competitive. And you have to take that into the game against Man Utd.’
Lampard’s own mid-season break has allowed him to reset. He looked exhausted before he went away but is refreshed and insistent that while fourth may be the goal for this season, catching Liverpool needs to be the club’s aim.
‘There was a lot of selfreflection,’ said Lampard. ‘Having some time away brings some clarity. I think we should be happy we are in fourth position. I think that would have been a plus at the start of the season but at the same time how can we get that extra 10 or 15 per cent, which I think we’ve been lacking, which would have given us a lot more points on the board and make fourth look a lot more comfortable?
‘So I’ve come back excited to hit this long run to the [end of the] season. Every point hurts that you feel like you dropped. At the same time we have to realise where we are, we’re in a bit of transition and this Premier
League now has never been as competitive. There’s Sheffield United and Wolves as well as United and Spurs. Everybody is getting this TV money, a lot of teams have been spending it, teams are improving and are tactically very aware and you get nothing your own way.
‘I understand the job in hand and there’s a long way to go. Fourth for Chelsea is our aim. But it shouldn’t be our aim long term. We want to be pushing again to close the gap to the standard, which, at the moment, is Liverpool.’