Thetownend.com

much like berbatov, if anyone cares...

could be robinho, some even suggesting kaka.... i bet it just turns out to be lampard signing a new deal.
but apparently bruce buck told one of the SSN journos, "you're really going to enjoy this".

Lap dancers?

Joe Cole to Liverpool? Lampard gets Pukka Pies sponsorship?  

Abramovich buggering off with all his money ?

Closely followed by the glory supporters

They're buying macca for 20 mill.

just lampard new deal.

well that was wank.

It's a real shame that the "best" of british talent seem intent on not testing themselves abroad these days.

No need to.....the big test is not abroad anymore.

Fucking fat Frank. Most over rated midfielder ever.

How can he be overrated? Everybody constantly says he's shit. Gerrard is overrated.

Disagree, by playing abroad you learn different ways of playing, he'd be more valuable to the national side by going abroad, as per John Collins, Paul Lambert in the mid 90's for Scotland.  It's a shame most stick to Britain imo.

Haha gerrard over rated

Both overrated. We do it to all our English players simply cos their English.

Lampard should have went to Inter.

Totally agree with Jan, alot of British players are too scared to go abroad because the failure element creeps into their mindset.

what did john collins win?

what's it got to do with winning things (although I think he won the french league with monaco), it's about improving your own personal game.  Which JC and PL definitely did.

Jan it has a lot to do with winning things its all about ambition.

So Lampard couldn't in anything at Barcelona, Inter, Madrid, Juve?????  I'd say he has more ambition going abroad and experiencing life outside his comfort zone than get paid £150k a week in West London.

I agree Jan, he could improve by going abroad.
He is the most over-rated player this country has ever had .... Chelsea should cash in now for him.

The choice between Gerrard and Lampost, there is only one winner by a million miles.

how can Lampard be overrated? he has been 1 of the best midfielders to play in the premier league scored 110 goals in just over 300 games for Chelsea and won premier leagues and cups

Would you leave your local area (if you liked it) for a job somewhere else, less certain and not for any more money? From a career perspective you wouldn't, especially if you only have a short career span left in you.

I think Lampard is brilliant.

The stats back this up as well.

He'll be on my Saturday coupon that's for sure.

the reason people slate Lampard is because him form for England, but to be honest who plays well for England? Rooney went a couple of years without scoring in a competitive game, Joe Cole, Gerrard, Rio, Terry all shite for England, Micah Richards done well the few games he played at right back and Barry done ok in a few games

Totally agree.

I also think Rio is one of the best centre backs in the world and I'm not even joking about that.

Is there a better way of rating a player than playing against the best in the world for their country.

Did we qualify for the European championships!!!!

And that was all lampards fault? Despite teh facthe was probably our best player vs croatia

I just think he's shit, if you have a different opinion fine no problem.

Never performs for me when on the big stage, superb for Chelsea against your Wigans, Boltons, Readings, Derbys etc.

My opinon is he is the most overrated player who has worn an English shirt in the last five years.

But he's scored more goals for England, in fewer games, than yer man Steven Gerrard?

euro 2004 he was our best player. FACT

well maybe second best, but the point still stands.

So what, does that make him a better player?

Your opinion, not fact.

Lebowksi brings up an interesting point. Though i think gerrard is the better player, lampard has done more for england than gerrard has

Well yes Gerrard does more against yer West Hams and that, but Lampard definitely has the better international career. As shown by my facts.

No real point in arguing the Gerrard/Lampard case is there, it is all down to a matter of opinion.
Last question: If Gerrard and Lampard came on the market right now, what would be the valuation for each player?

Gerrard. quite easily

like u say no point arguing cos there i nearly 3 years difference between them so prices wouldnt reflect how better one of them is than the other.
for what its worth if i could have gerrard or lampard id have Gerrard, but Lampard is still a fantastic player as his record shows

I like both of them  :D

So did Steve McLaren, and look what happened to him.

To be fair I think Frank's not that concerned about maximising his earnings now (he must be a multi millionaire by now) and to be fair if he signed on at Barca the signing on fee he'd receive would be huge.  And if someone offered me a similar job to the one I have now in another country of course I'd go for it, especially if moving costs didn;t come into it.  Wouldn't you?  Would you rather stay in Wiltshire? 

There are so many factors Jan, he's got a kid, is a Londoner and British players are generally not well received abroad.

I don't think I could work abroad for 3 years contract, I'd miss my family and friends and STFC.

2 kids apparently. Wow I must have missed Heat magazine that week.

He's Mrs is foreign though isn't she (spanish?) so he'd settle in okay over there.  Not picking an argument about it, and not specifically talking about Lampard but it'd be great to have a couple of top notch british players plying their trade overseas.  Serie A was brilliant when Gazza, Walker and Gail's son from corrie were in Italia!!

To be honest comparing his and gerrards goals for England is a bit false as its always gerrard who has to sit deep and in international football he cant gamble and get forward as much as he could against say wigan foe example.

As for missing family etc surely that’s what the massive wages footballers get is supposed to soften the blow of?

I've never really accepted this idea that Gerrard and Lampard are "too similar". They are both modern centre midfield players coached by these dolts that seem to think that all players in a position should have an identical skill set, and as a result try to play the same sort of game, but when you look at their natural abilities they're actually quite different players.

Gerrard has more of the traditional box to box midfielder about him, in the style of a young Bryan Robson or Roy Keane. He will collect the ball in his own half and carry it upfield. That's why when managers play him out wide he doesn't look completely lost. What he doesn't have is the kind of brilliant close control ala Gazza, or out and out pace that you need to take a ball past a defender of real quality.

Lampard is far more effective in the opponents half, and in particluar around the edge of the penalty area. He play's nice little one-two's, weighted balls for team-mates to run onto, little chips over the top, makes good late runs, and shoots well from 20-25 yards. He's far more like Paul Scholes, but he can tackle a bit.

Now a CM combination of Roy Keane and Paul Scholes always seemed to work quite well for Man U, even back when Roy had legs and wanted to get forward more.

What has fucked up the England midfield for years if you ask me isn't the combination in the centre of the park but what goes on around it. Specifically the lack of any wide players with sufficient quality to provide some penetration. Playing Beckham in a wide position, when he lacked any of the attributes of a winger, and never really had the beating of a fullback worked for Utd because on the other flank they had Giggs who could get in behind a defence and make it to the byline. England never had that, and it limited their options going forward, forcing them to either play their way through the middle or deliver longer angled balls into the penalty area from wide positions.

It's no wonder England's players used to get in each others way, there were big areas of the pitch, in the corners of the oppositions half which were completely empty, other than the odd forward raid by a fullback.

It's only since Rooney, who will pull wide, and Cole and now Richards, who have the pace to get well forward from fullback, have been in the side that there's been a bit more width.

Gerrard and Lampard would have worked fine with at least one genuine wide player in the midfield, but might have been really good in a 3-5-2 with a more holding player like Hargreaves anchoring the centre and Cole and Richards as Wingbacks.

 

Not just that DRS, but the wages they are on the can afford to fly home to family and or fly the family out pretty much every day!

Exactly. I'm sure I read somewhere that Veron was commuting 3 times a week to Manchester from rome in a private jet

for 6m a year i would not see my family for 5 years for fucksake

i'd do it for 100k

Maybe that explains why he was so shit.

Lampard said today he didn't want to leave Chelsea because of liking the players so much. Something about all the support they gave him last season. Bless him.