Jose Mourinho says Lampard will have a statue at
Stamford Bridge one day
Frank Lampard left the club this summer after 13
glittering years, and has since joined title rivals Manchester City
on a short-term loan from sister club New York City FC.
Mourinho admits Chelsea's signing of former Arsenal captain
Cesc Fabregas, however, will not fill the hole the England man has left at
Stamford Bridge.
Speaking to Rio Ferdinand for BT Sport, he said: 'Fabregas
is the player we need to modify a little bit the profile of our game. We want
to give the next dimension to our game in midfield.
'But I think we can never say – in spite of Cesc, who is a
fantastic player as you know – that, "This guy is coming to replace
Frank," because Frank is Frank and one day he will be alongside Peter
Osgood in terms of a statue being built for him, because he’s fantastic.'
Mourinho also admitted Chelsea have a real fight on their
hands if they are to reclaim the Premier League title.
The Blues finished third last season - Mourinho's first
since returning to Stamford Bridge - behind champions Manchester City and a
resurgent Liverpool.
The coming campaign marks 10 seasons since Mourinho's first
in England - when his Chelsea side romped to a first league title in 50 years.
But Mourinho believes competition for the top spot is far
harder this time around.
'In England it is even stronger now than in my first
period,' he said.
'Even more now because when I first came Man City didn’t
have this financial situation they have now.
'Even Tottenham at this moment, all the top five or six. In
this moment can you tell me who is going to win the Premier League?
'You can’t tell me. You can try to tell me but can you say
which one of the top five is going to be outside the Champions League? You
can’t say. This is what I want.'
Chelsea's pre-season took them to Turkey on Friday, where
they played two 45-minute matches against Besiktas and Fenerbahce, beating the
latter 2-0 before a late Ersan Gulum goal handed Besiktas a 1-0 win
No comments:
Post a Comment