Frank Lampard: Big Game Bottler

After a decade of arguably being England’s – and the Premier League’s – most dependable and productive midfielder, the 31-year-old Lampard is clearly entering the twilight of his career. It’s one of the inevitable truths of the game, but it doesn’t matter how great you are – age will catch up to you eventually. That’s not to say Lampard is one step away from being a Chelsea pensioner.  While he may no longer be a world beater, he’s still rather good. Although that’s actually indicative of Chelsea’s side as a whole and is really at the crux of coach Carlo Ancellotti’s biggest problem going forward: Chelsea still have a great team, but they’re old and running out of steam and not getting any better. It’s no coincidence that half the side has gone missing since the New Year. (Anyone heard from Deco lately?)

If Chelsea want to rescale the heights of Europe again, then they need to be younger, faster, more creative. That means a summer clearout is in order. Of course that’s going to be difficult to achieve with players of stature like Lampard, Michael Ballack (33), Didier Drogba (32), Ricardo Carvalho (31), Nicolas Anelka (31) and even John Terry (29, going on 39).  But at the very least they need to buy young and buy big so that the new guard can step in once these old dinosaurs fall by the wayside during the middle of next season.

Time for a change as Lampard enters the final stretch.

Pages: 1 2