Frank
Lampard says he feels no extra financial pressure to ensure Chelsea qualify
for the Champions League and played down the prospect of his best players
leaving if they fail to do so.
Chelsea recorded a £96.6m loss for the year ending June 30 as the Blues
released their latest financial results in January with the club citing a
lack of Champions League football over the period as one factor in the loss.
The Blues have seen Diego Costa, Thibaut Courtois and Eden Hazard leave the
club in recent summer transfer windows but Lampard does not fear losing the
likes of N'Golo Kante should his side fail to secure a top-four berth and
says they want to add top names to the squad.
"That's not a question for me in terms of the money, the question for me is
a football question - do you want to be in the Champions League? It's yes,"
he said.
"I'm not silly, I know those numbers and I have seen those figures and I
know Chelsea in recent years have had years in the Champions League, a year
out of all European competition when they won the league, a year in the
Europa league so it has happened and this club is still here and trying to
move forward.
"I solely think of it as a footballing matter in terms of wanting to get to
the Champions League and, of course, if that happens, if sustaining that
will help on that financial level, yeah."
He added: "We obviously want to keep our top players, Kante is an incredible
player and everyone knows that. That would be case by case, individual by
individual. At the end of the day, no matter the quality of the player, you
want players that want to be here at Chelsea and want to push and push and
close the gap upwards that we have at the moment.
"That's a question for the summer and something I certainly shouldn't be
dwelling on now. We want to keep our top players and in fact want to be
adding to that to try and improve as all top clubs do."
Rising expectations after a promising
start
Chelsea started the season in the midst of a FIFA transfer ban, which played
a part in Lampard looking to the club's younger players to step up ahead of
his first campaign back in charge at Stamford Bridge.
His side sit fourth after an encouraging start but just one win from their
last five home Premier League matches has seen their advantage over this
weekend's opponents Tottenham shrink to just one point in the race for the
Champions League and Lampard believes expectations on his young side may
have risen after their start to the campaign.
"Maybe they did [expectations rose] and that's a good thing and normal and
it's human nature. We were all happy when we were winning seven on the
bounce and went into the international break in and around Manchester City
but since then we haven't kept the consistency of results from that but I
think the understanding is still there," he said.
"We want to be a club that pushes on but you have to understand that the
players are absolutely giving everything. Manchester United was a 90-minute
showing of our home form this season. Some really good bits, when we don't
take our chances, which we create a few of, enough and we are not clinical
with it then games become tough. That's something for me and us to overcome
without a doubt and the fans have been absolutely with us and we need them.
"People respect us when they come to the Bridge. They know that we can cause
them problems and a lot of teams have come here, the games that we have
lost, it has felt like lost points are when teams have defended, we've had a
lot of the ball, we haven't been clinical in our moments to score goals
which can sometimes generate a bit of nervousness and we have conceded at
bad times and that is just the brutal reality of it.
"I don't think it is inexperience, I don't. You can look at the youth in the
squad and maybe that is an easy conclusion, maybe it is part of it. It is
always hard to absolutely pinpoint things but sometimes the clinical nature
of not scoring, the sloppy nature of having a moment's lapse which can give
a team which has one or two shots at goal a goal in a game which has
happened a couple of times at home. It can be experience, can it be focus,
quality, the quality level of the finish - I think there are a lot of things
to it."
The "making" of Chelsea's young players
Mason Mount has not been able recently to quite reach the heights of his
impressive early-season displays but Lampard says he trusts him to work his
way through a slight downturn in form and has backed all of his young
players to use this difficult spell in the Premier League as the "making" of
them.
"There is competition in that area as well so it is not an easy selection
for me, week to week," Lampard said. "I know Mason well from working with
him and I know he is tough on himself. Probably since the Tottenham game he
will want to have more output in terms of goals and assists because that is
what he is very capable of.
"He is fine, he is very aware of that, I have very honest conversations with
Mason and I know he wants the best for himself and I see it out there every
day. Even if those goals and assists aren't quite coming he will fight his
way through that, no problem."
He added: "This period is what all clubs suffer in the Premier League,
generally. Individually you suffer periods of form and as a young player you
have to understand even more and be more sensitive to the fact that it can
affect confidence because they have just been thrust into the team this year
and it is new and the eyes of the world are on them. That's a big deal.
"It is a test for the younger players and I think with the physical nature
of the league and over the course of the season it probably was always going
to come that individuals would have little dips and how they come out of it
will certainly be the making of them. It's always the same it is how they
train and work and the focus they have that will bring them through.
"I believe in all of them. Whether they are in dips or not, I think they are
all going to be top players for this club but they have to keep pushing and
they have to be strong in moments like this."
top