I’M A LAMP COLLECTOR Barkley reveals Blues boss was his sticker-book hero as a boy

ROSS BARKLEY, like any schoolboy, used to collect stickers of famous footballers – and Frank Lampard was one of his favourites.

The young Barkley used to be glued to the TV on a Saturday night watching his hero as he starred for Chelsea.

It was a dream come true for the Merseysider to play alongside the midfield great towards the end of Lampard’s England career.

And even more so now he is playing under the new Chelsea manager and being told to think like a striker, to express himself and take risks – shoot when you can.

“As a kid you get stickers of players and I had Frank,” said Barkley after scoring twice in Sunday’s 4-3 pre-season win at Reading.

“To go from watching him on Match of the Day to playing with him for England and then have him as a manager, it shows anything can happen in football. He was one of my idols. Frank will help all the midfielders here. He is a legend, the highest-scoring midfielder in Premier League history.”

Barkley, 25, revealed: “In training he’s been saying ‘express yourself on the pitch, take risks, don’t be too safe, shoot, try to create chances’.

“It’s great to hear a coach say that because you don’t want to play in your shell. You want to be playing off the cuff sometimes, to take chances and make something happen.

“That’s what players like myself, Mason Mount and Ruben Loftus-Cheek – when he’s back – want to express on the pitch.”

Chelsea travel to Austria tomorrow to take on Red Bull Salzburg, and the club’s final warm-up before their league opener against Manchester United on August 11 is at Borussia Moenchengladbach on Saturday.