I’LL BE EDEN FOR MADRID
FROM BACK PAGE succeed Maurizio Sarri at Chelsea after an impressive debut season as a manager. But the 40-year-old (winning the Champions League with Chelsea, above) said it was tough dealing with the Chelsea link while he has the massive Wembley clash to prepare for.
Asked if he could say no if Chelsea offered him the job, Lampard said: “I’m not going to answer that question because it’s a headline.
“When I started out in management people said: ‘Your dream must be to be Chelsea manager.’ It’s an easy link. My focus is completely on the here and now.”
Lampard who had a trophy-laden career at the Bridge and is the club’s record goalscorer added: “I find it quite difficult talking about it because they’ve got a game coming up. More importantly, we’ve got a game coming up before that.
“I don’t want to think about it, I don’t want to talk about it, I want to talk about Monday, I want to get this over the line for us. We’ve got a really difficult game and my focus is on us on Monday.” FROM BACK PAGE after the final, with Hazard keen to go and Real boss Zinedine Zidane (below) pushing for the transfer to be done. Hazard, who has just over a year on his contract left, has told friends that at all costs he wants the deal tied up by early next month before he joins up with Belgium for international duty. Former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho believes that the match in Azerbaijan will be Hazard’s last for the club. “He will want to win and possibly go to Real Madrid with a last trophy for Chelsea,” said Mourinho.
“Eden will try to be what he is the majority of the time – a fantastic player on the pitch. But it looks like this is the last match in blue for Eden.” Chelsea fans have slammed the club for their lack of support in helping fans get to Baku for the final. Only around 2,000 are going due to high prices and lack of flights. The Chelsea Supporters Trust said: “We are extremely disappointed that Chelsea have been unable or unwilling to help supporters overcome the travel, expense and logistics.”
The Trust also criticised Chelsea for not staging a screening of the game for fans, as both Tottenham and Liverpool are doing for the Champions League final. The statement added: “We believe that Chelsea have missed a great opportunity.”