**Completely imaginary phone conversation…**
“I love you”
“I love you more Frank”
“Look, I’ve got to go now, we’ve got a training session. Tootles darlin”
“Ok, you hang up”
“No, you hang up”
“No youuu!….”
And so on and so on. It’s pretty blazingly obvious that the Special One has a special place in his special heart for Frank Lampard. If only Peter Kenyon wouldn’t stand in the way of this footballing union, things would be very simple. Frank clearly wants to leap into Jose’s arms, and Jose clearly wants Frank on his books.
Amid all the Stamford Bridge chatter; from Scolari that he wants to keep Lampard, from Kenyon that Lampard is going nowhere, and from Lampard himself – saying that, actually, his future is very much unwritten – is this peach of a quote from Jose Mourinho:
‘Frank Lampard is a different kind of person, not so extroverted,’ Mourinho said. ‘He’s the best professional I’ve ever worked with. He’s the player who trains better, has more concentration, more commitment and is always focused on himself.
‘He is never happy about his performance, always wants to improve, and always wants to learn. If he makes a mistake in a game, the next day in training he wants to stay one more hour to practise exactly that situation.
‘I remember he missed a goal once with a difficult left-foot volley and the next day he was there an hour after training practising that volley.
‘Lampard is incredibly professional. God gave players the talent, and some of them waste this. But some others make themselves better and these are the kind of the players who can last forever.’ (Daily Mail)
Unleashing a belter of a quote like this, is an exquisitely timed move from Inter boss Mourinho and leaves no-one with even a smidgen of doubt that Frank Lampard makes Jose Mourinho a little hot under the collar.