Chelsea boss Lampard: I'll have say on transfers; we'll be open

Posted Monday, December 16, 2019 by Tribalfootball.com

Chelsea boss Frank Lampard says he'll have a say on any new signing in January.

Chelsea are now free to buy after a successful appeal against their transfer ban at the Court of Arbitration in Sport.

Asked if he would have the final say, Lampard replied: "Yes, but then if I say I want [Kylian] Mbappe, [Cristiano] Ronaldo and [Lionel] Messi for my front three I might get knocked back!

"I wouldn't say that, but it's obviously a balance where I can put forward a recommendation and have an open conversation with the owner [Roman Abramovich] and hope we move forward in the right direction.

"I'm very open about that. My biggest thing here is how hard can we work on the training ground because I know we have a good squad, that's my main concern. Of course when it comes to recruitment I want to have a big say in it and we are very open.

"I have had very open conversations with [director] Marina [Granovskaia], which is speaking to the owner as far as I'm concerned.

"I can speak to either of those, but mainly Marina. And the scouting department, and [techinical and performance adviser] Petr Cech.

"And of course I sit with my staff daily for hours, we talk about the team and how we can improve and of course at some points you start thinking about the longer term future.

"The conversations have been very open to this point so I am happy with it."