I’ll be Frank with picking my best men
FRANK LAMPARD goes into the new Premier League campaign with a pledge to pick his Chelsea team on merit – NOT on players’ price tags.
With more t han £200million spent on new faces this summer, there are concerns the club’s crop of homegrown talent, which f lourished last season, will automatically drop down the Stamford Bridge pecking order.
But Lampard, delivering a positive message to Mason Mount and Co, and a gentle warning to arrivals such as £75m Kai Havertz and £50m Timo Werner, is adamant that the huge transfer fees guarantee nothing in his camp.
Instead, the Chelsea chief is demanding that everyone in a squad bulging with world-class ability proves – on a daily basis – he is worth a start on match day.
Ahead of tomorrow’s opener at Brighton, Lamps explained: “There’s never a point where you are siding with players depending on how much they cost or how long they’ve been here. Nobody expects that.
“I’m not silly, we’re bringing in players to improve and take the team to a new level, so you want them playing games.
“Generally, the players have to feel that, as long as they’re training right and acting right, they have the possibility to play.”
England winger Mount, 21, is one of those deemed most under threat from the foreign imports – especially ex- Bayer Leverkusen forward Havertz.
But he has responded to the competition exactly as Lampard did during 13 years of record-breaking feats as a Chelsea player.
Lamps not only survived, but thrived, whenever Blues’ billionaire owner Roman Abramovich went on a spending spree.
Embracing the new arrivals – and using them to motivate your own game – is the key, according to the Bridge boss.
As the club’s all- time highest scorer with 211 goals, Lampard added: “I certainly wouldn’t say, ‘I did it, you can too’. I don’t think that’s my style of management. Wi t h
Mason, the conversation he has is by the way he trains every day.
“And the way he’s been in the last couple of days, since coming back from England, shows me that when I talk about players who will react in a positive way, Mason’s one of them.
“That’s what I want from all the young lads.
“I always saw it as a challenge. Players with the right mentality will up their game, make friends with the new players, welcome them and work as well as they can within the squad.
“Hopefully, you then see levels raised throughout. That was something that did occur in my time.
“I was a young player, so was John Terry and others. The core of the young players did react and we managed to form a good group going forward.”
Lampard’s selection dilemma is eased as three of his five close- season captures – Thiago Silva, Ben Chilwell and Hakim Ziyech – are not fit.
That leaves German pair Havertz and Werner poised for their muchanticipated debuts.