FRANK LAMPARD SAYS that the shock £8 million sale of David Luiz to Arsenal wasn’t down to player power and that he didn’t “flex his muscles”.
The Premier League transfer window closed on Thursday and Luiz stole the headlines as he stunned the football world moving from one London club to another.
The 32-year-old’s move has generated speculation around a possible falling out between the player and manager, which Lampard has denied.
Luiz was known to be both an influential and popular figure in the Blues dressing room, but new Blues boss Lampard denies that selling him has anything to do with a power play.
I would never have gone out to make any form of a mark,” Lampard told reporters. “I think it would have been naive to try to flex my muscles or my power. I don’t need to do that. I just play it as I see it, daily.
“I watch how the players train, I watch how the players react in the dressing room, how the spirit is. And then I have to make decisions. And I have to try and create a squad that is in the image of what I want.
“And I wasn’t saying David wasn’t part of that, but I have to make lots of decisions every day and they are not all about trying to show power, they are just trying to do it my way because the last thing I want to do is look back on these times and go, ‘I wish I had done that differently and I didn’t quite do it’.
“These are decisions that I make daily. So, if it looks like that from the outside, it certainly wasn’t how I did it. It was purely football decisions on both sides. Not just the way I was thinking, but the way David was thinking. And at 32, I was that 32-year-old. I left here at 35-ish.
“It was slightly different, for me, but I wanted honesty and respect. It went both ways. We are also big characters, so when we do talk, then it is serious. We don’t beat around the bush, we got to the point pretty quickly and that was it.
“I am very comfortable with the squad we have got and that’s not a slant on David at all, I know all of David’s qualities. He has got great qualities as a footballer and as a person. It is just a decision we came to.”
Luiz featured heavily in pre-season but he was left on the bench after Chelsea’s penultimate match of the pre-season where they beat RB Salzburg 5-3 in Austria.
Chelsea now prepare to face Manchester United on Sunday without Luiz, who was one of just three players at the club to have played alongside Lampard in west London.
Fikayo Tomori is being promoted and is in line for a new deal after Luiz’s departure. He will compete with Kurt Zouma, Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rudiger for a central defender spot this season.
Lampard has dismissed claims that Luiz wanted to be untouchable, as he further explained how two former team-mates can part ways in the final hours of deadline day.
I’m never surprised by players,” he added. “He didn’t want to be untouchable, and I should make that clear. I’m never surprised by players. The huge difference between being a player and a manager is that, as a player, you can be very selfish and not worry about anyone else too much.
“When you are a manager, your responsibility is 25 players and more, everyone around the building. So never expect a conversation to go the way you think it might go.
“Also, when you are dealing with top-level sportspeople, they are driven and I accept that. We are all driven in different ways.”
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!
I wonder how it’ll go down when he’s celebrating with his Tricolour when they win Division 2, no doubt it’ll be accompanied by a rendition of the Famine Song
It’s fairly simple lads! As a southern Irish catholic u will be HATED by rangers! There is a savage hatred there! I would play for 3,000 easily somewhere else
I know, I support Celtic
How the hell could you play for them
It’s a job and he is out of contract.
If u were a true Irishman u wouldn’t go near them
Macca, you saying you have never worked for a British company? or bought British products which fund the British economy??? Drop that sh*te about being a “true Irishman” its a job and hes getting to do what he loves most! Fairly sure you would change your attitude if it was you being offered upwards of 30,000 per week to play!
I wouldn’t play for rangers in a fit! That’s what this is about!
I wouldn’t play for rangers in a fit! That’s what this is about
It’s alright, Macca. Somehow I don’t think they’re looking to sign you.
And I bet if asked neither would any “real” Irish player on the Republic of Ireland team
True Irish man would go f*ck off with that. How about being a true Irish man when you have a mortgage to pay and no income coming in. Would you go on the dole or get a decent paying job playing soccer? Grow up.
And ur gonna try tell me this lads only option was rangers? Lmao! u go around and ask most southern Irish people would they play for rangers if they were professional footballs and I know the answer ul get
Are you gonna try tell me otherwise? Do you know him, his situation and his offers? No. 2 offers on the table so lets say one is 7 grand a week at rangers and the other is 3 grand at another place. So you’re saying you would still not go for the sake of 1/3 of a million more? If the money was on the table in front of you?
Only option? Maybe not, best option? Probably.
Not everyone is as backwards in their thinking as you are.
Celtic are a British club..
It’s a job!!! My dads from Glasgow and even there in the epicentre of it all, you get offered a chance to play professional football, you take it. Now if both are in for you that’s a different matter…
Who cares!!! The Celtic v Rangers crap is the reason most people can’t stand the old firm derby!! People give others abuse for following Man Utd, Liverpool etc because they have no connection with them. The same argument should hold for these historically bigoted sides!
Celtic fans are possibly the worst soccer fans in the world. I once was told, while wearing an AC Milan shirt, (they were playing Celtic) I should support Celtic because they’re catholic… I had fun pointing out that Italy is the home of Catholicism, which I did in no uncertain terms!
P.s I have no love for AC Milan, just an old jersey I stole off the lads!
Are you for real, the abuse fans from English clubs give each other is unreal and as you say for no reason at all.
At least Celtic and rangers fans have history and with that some sense of ( misguided as it is ) justification about not liking the other.
As for rangers and Irish players well its Like Michael Jordan playing for the KKK’s basketball team, the club hate who you are, the fans hate who you are and if you want to play for them go ahead there’s nothing stoping you but don’t expect to be invited to too many supporter club functions. ( unless its a 12 of July one then I’d Make an excuse and stay at home or wear something flameproof)
Your uneducated-you have 1 conversation with an idiot and you brand the clubs fans as the worlds worst???Celtic and their fans came across as fantastic over the their recent European nights-You don’t have 1 notion as to what your talking about
I’m uneducated?! I disliked Celtic before this, the vast majority of Celtic fans have never been in Scotland, let alone Celtic park. Plastic IRA wannabes
You are wrong but with you being so small minded and a brain of so little magnitude I am not going to waste my evening in reading your rants, And yes, you come across very uneducated
Whatever helps you sleep at night sweetheart. Anyone who who supports a team defined by religion has no right to call anyone else small minded.
I never mentioned anything about being a supporter-Sweet Dreams
Then why attack me on my opinions?
A lot of people are misunderstood here and think his detractors are complaining about him playing for a club with strong British vibes. It’s more extreme than that; Rangers are not just a British club, but a strongly anti-Irish club, who sing songs about being “up to our knees in Fenian blood.” For those who think its silly in this day and age to dislike Rangers for what they stand for, then try and spend half an hour unharmed in a Rangers pub on matchday. Your Irish accent won’t help you one bit!
Completely agree, it’s not about playing for a pro-British club it’s playing for an anti-Irish club
See how long he lasts with them dirtbird fans
Am I the only one that finds people’s following of the Old Firm in this country absolutely bizzarre. They play football in a different country, but the way some people go on about it you’d think it was two sides from Dublin. Sure, there’s a catholic/protestant rivalry there, which most consider stupid these days anyway, but that in no way makes it an Ireland vs the brits game. If people are so wound up about British people that they consider an Irish man playing for Rangers a national disgrace, they can go live in the Gaeltacht, speak nothing but Irish, buy no British products at all and see where it gets them. People bearing grudges for things that happened before many of their births is ridiculius
And wearing Celtic Jersey’s to an Irish game. I follow hibs, and despite their Irish links I wouldn’t dream of wearing the Jersey of a Scottish side to an Irish international game. For all their Irish connotations, they are and remain a Scottish club from Glasgow, and it’s laughable that many try to pass them off as our major national side.
100%agree with you
Cork goalkeeper Alan Smith made his Rangers debut last month… So he’ll be the 2nd Irish player in 80 years!
He can play for whoever he likes. Let’s just hope he doesn’t join in with the fans when they start belting out “The Billy Boys”.
Well done to him for ignoring the biggoted rubbish that spews from the underclass up there.