Lampard and Ballack set for new roles with Chelsea
FRANK Lampard and Michael Ballack are set to return to the Chelsea fold. Lampard, the club’s record goalscorer, won every major honour during his 13 years at Stamford Bridge and Ballack spent four years at the club, winning the Double in 2010.
Marina Granovskaia, Chelsea’s de facto managing director and Roman Abramovich’s closest aide, would like to see them involved as official club ambassadors.
Lampard and Ballack both have media commitments which prevent them dedicating the necessary time to any such role immediately but Chelsea hope it can be done in the future.
Lampard has spent time at Chelsea’s training ground as part of his studies towards his coaching qualifications, but there is no desire to impose a legendary former player on manager Antonio Conte and his coaching team.
Nor are Chelsea searching for a popular replacement for Michael Emenalo, the former technical director, who stepped down last month and has since joined Monaco.
Granovskaia, who has absorbed the bulk of Emenalo’s responsibilities and will be the key executive in the January transfer window, has taken a leading role in the effort to keep Chelsea connected to its stars of the past.
Ahead of Chelsea’s game at West Ham today, meanwhile, Conte has told Eden Hazard he must light his ‘sacred fires’ if he is to match Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
A day after Hazard ranked 19th in the Ballon d’Or vote, Conte was adamant his Belgian forward could reach the immense levels set by Ronaldo, who won the award for the fifth time on Thursday, and Messi.
‘When you see these players you see a hunger in every moment,’ Conte said.
‘I like to call it a sacred fire — when you have it inside you, the will to win every game, to score goals.
‘Eden has the right characteristics to try to fight with these giants.’
Hazard looks set to be up against Adrian in the West Ham goal today, with Manchester City loanee Joe Hart likely to be benched. And Hammers manager David Moyes says he will not allow Hart to cut his season-long loan short in January, even if the England goalkeeper is unhappy with a lack of Premier League game time.
‘I don’t think we could work here without two top goalkeepers,’ Moyes said. ‘Because we have a couple of cup games, we have an incredibly busy period.
‘Joe is England’s No 1 and Adrian is a really good goalkeeper here at West Ham so we have good competition.’
Being dropped could damage Hart’s chances of 2018 World Cup selection, with England manager Gareth Southgate having warned his players that they have to play regularly to go to Russia.