Toon struck by lightning Lamptey
YOU might have to add the name of Tariq Lamptey to those of Mo Salah and Kevin De Bruyne. The Ones That Got Away, you might say.
For had Chelsea manager Frank Lampard found himself in front of a TV in the hours before yesterday’s visit of Liverpool, it would have made for rueful viewing.
How on earth did he sanction the teenager’s sale? And for just £3million. Now? Try £30m.
Much has been made of Chelsea letting go of Salah and De Bruyne, two future PFA Player of the Year winners. It could be that Lamptey joins that list one day, too.
Lampard must really fancy Chelsea right back Reece James, for Lamptey, at 19 and making just his 11th Premier League appearance, has the world at his feet.
Here, he invariably had the ball at his feet and black-and-white shirts in his wake. He retired bruised after 58 minutes — Newcastle’s most accurate connections all game were with Lamptey’s ankles — but he could have walked off after eight minutes. Job done.
By that point Brighton were two goals up against a clueless home side, who seemingly had not watched Lamptey’s equally impressive performance against his old club on Monday night.
Of course they had, as Steve Bruce later confirmed, but that made the decision to task winger Allan SaintMaximin with containing the front-running full back all the more baffling.
Lamptey had already served warning of his threat with one burst to the byline when he then skipped into the area and was toppled by the clumsy lunge of Saint-Maximin on four minutes. Neal Maupay converted from the penalty spot.
Two minutes later and Lamptey was again charging forward unopposed, this time slipping a pass to Leandro Trossard who centred for Maupay to clip home. The goal was flagged for offside but a VAR check arrived at the right decision.
Lamptey’s decision-making was equally sound, and, just when it looked as if he had made a rash judgment in attempting to slide and thwart Callum Wilson as he ran clear on goal, the ball was scooped from the striker’s stride. It was phenomenal stuff. England should be wary of a recent approach for Lamptey from Ghana, the country of his parents’ birth.
It took 20 minutes of Saint-Maximin being denied at one end and destroyed by Lamptey at the other before he switched flanks.
Come the 33rd minute and the Frenchman was signalling to the bench that he’d had enough.
It felt telling that, as he limped past the dugout and off down the tunnel, Bruce and his coaching staff stood motionless. Such inertia was reflective of how their team had played.
The Government have advised against needless journeys this week. Brighton goalkeeper Mat Ryan travelled 350 miles to Tyneside for absolutely no reason.
While Graham Potter’s side had a clear identity, gameplan and the ability to execute it, Newcastle had no shots on target and no ideas.
Bruce could hardly disagree and was honest in his appraisal.
‘When you start like that, at this level, you’re going to get punished,’ he said. ‘It turned into an awful afternoon. We never gave ourselves a chance.
‘We’ve gone from having a decent week where everyone is positive to throwing in a hand grenade. They were better than us and ran the game from start to finish.’
Brighton scored a deserved third seven minutes from time when the excellent Maupay fed Aaron Connolly and he curled into the far corner from 12 yards.
The game did end on a sour note for Brighton when Yves Bissouma was rightly sent off for a high boot in the face of Jamal Lewis. But the result was never doubt and the story of the day was Lamptey.
Potter said: ‘He’s a special character, really likeable. The players love him. He has that desire to run in behind and is so threatening. He’s got blistering pace and plays with courage and freshness.’
Indeed. Just what were Chelsea thinking?