West Ham lost 2-0 to London rivals Chelsea on Sunday and former Hammer Frank Lampard all too predictably set his side on their way to victory with his 200th goal for the Blues.
In the run up to the game, current West Ham midfielder Gary O’Neil told The Sun that he would love to see Lampard back at Upton Park donning the claret and blue once again. But would Lampard be welcome?
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Speculation over where the England international will be playing next season has been rife since Chelsea made it apparent in December that they would not be offering Lampard a new deal once his current one expires in the summer.
Although there have been reports that the Blues have come to their senses and plan to retain Lampard’s services, an agreement is yet to be reached and the clock is ticking.
O’Neil, for one, is shocked by Lampard’s current situation and is open to the idea of him returning to play for the Hammers.
“It’s surprising that a player of that stature and quality is being allowed to run out his contract,” he said.
“If the money was right and the deal was right, he’s a player I would love to see back at West Ham. He would be a great player to sign if the club could get hold of him.”
But would he?
Lampard is undoubtedly an excellent player, even at the age of 34, and he has to be one of the most talented footballers to come out of West Ham’s prestigious Academy. He has proven himself to be a lethal goalscorer time and again, and the world and his wife know West Ham could do with someone who can find the net regularly. But there are so many potential problems that could arise from bringing Lampard back.
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The first of those would be money. Lampard currently picks up a reputed £150,000 per week at Chelsea – someone of his expertise and experience does not offer their services for mere pennies. West Ham would, therefore, have to pay a not so small fortune to convince Lampard to return to the club for whom he said in 2001 he would not play again.
Imagine that West Ham actually have that kind of money and can somehow persuade Lampard to come back to Upton Park, despite all the abuse he has had to endure from the Hammers fans since he left for Chelsea … where will he actually fit in?
The obvious place for him is the attacking midfield role that Kevin Nolan fills (when he is fit). Lampard is a better player than Nolan and would surely score more goals in his favoured position, but Nolan is club captain and Sam Allardyce’s enforcer. West Ham fans cannot seriously believe for a second that Big Sam would leave Nolan on the bench. Especially when you consider that Nolan, despite being 30 years old himself, is rumoured to pick up £50k per week – frighteningly high wages for a player at a club of West Ham’s stature. He would be the most expensive bench-warmer West Ham have ever had.
The only alternative is dropping Nolan or Lampard back to fill a gap that is likely to be left by Mohamed Diame, who is expected to leave the Boleyn Ground at some point in the near future. Then, with Lampard, Nolan and Mark Noble; West Ham’s midfield would be as slow as Chelsea are at keeping their best players.
But what if Diame doesn’t leave? What if Allardyce doesn’t get a new contract? What if West Ham are not even in the Premier League next season?
It’s possible to speculate forever about Lampard being a Hammer again, but the truth of the matter is that he would never want to play for West Ham – the only club whose fans still put the ‘Junior’ in his name and call him ‘Fat Frank’.
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Although some do not hold a grudge, factions of the Claret and Blue Army will never forgive Lampard for turning his back on West Ham. This was displayed by the coins and hotdogs launched in his direction when he celebrated that milestone goal for Chelsea on Sunday. His presence rouses a lot of anger among many Hammers supporters.
Lampard returning to West Ham is a move that neither parties would really welcome.
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Unfortunately for us, Lampard would never in a million years consider returning to West Ham due to the horrendous abuse he constantly receives from the fans every time we play Chelsea… Well done everyone concerned!!!
Plus we wouldn’t be able to table an offer that would match anywhere near what the other offers will offer him so I wouldn’t blame those of us at the stadium who don’t like him.
sure you do not mean fortunately for us .why would we want an ageing player demanding a massive wages.
There is a higher probability of Lionel Messi coming to the Boleyn and paying us £150k a week for the privilege. We couldn’t afford Fat Frank even if we wanted him. He would never come back anyway as he has been treated so badly since he departed.
Funny how inconsistent we are to old boys. Frank Jnr didn’t have much choice really after the club binned his Dad and his Uncle. Funny that, him then wanting to leave. I hate that Chelsea had him and the success he has brought them but your reap what you sow.
I could never understand why he got such a bad time off a certain section of so called fans.He was always going to top his old man and we let him go. Mind you as I’ve just read he really didn’t have much of a choice after Harry and Frank Snr got the Spanish archer. He’s never coming back …not on 150k a week anyway
Frank got such a bad time of it. With Middle aged fans speaking out at meetings questioning Harry on why Frank was being picked for the team? accusing Harry of favouritism with young Frank sitting right next to him. Disgraceful childish behaviour from a fan.
Frank then turned out to be one of our countries best players in the last ten years, scoring 200 goals for Chelsea in 600 appearances and 27 goals for england in 94 appearances.
Frank played for us since he was about 10 and was England schoolboy captain. He loved our club and yet small bunch of our supporters treated him like crap.