Chelsea has had a pretty average campaign thus far under Frank Lampard. The criticism should not be completely given only on his shoulders. The Blues were banned from signing any player for two consecutive windows. They breached the transfer rule of signing under aged players. Frank Lampard is very new to the role as well and this is only his second season as a manager.
The Chelsea legend started his managerial career at Derby County last season. After a pretty decent campaign over there, Chelsea brought Lampard as a replacement for the previous manager Maurizio Sarri. So far things are looking good for the ex-England international.
However, Due to the transfer ban Lampard was unable to boost his squad. He took the chance to promote some of the quality young players from Chelsea academy to the first team. The likes of Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount, Fikayo Tomori, Reece James, Billy Gilmour are some of the young players that became first-team regulars for Chelsea this season.
Due to that, there was clearly a lack of experience which caused ups and downs in the results. Next season, will not be the same, and Lampard won’t be short on the budget. The Chelsea board is reportedly willing to hand him around £200m transfer kitty to bring in more quality to the squad. So let us take a look at some players that Lampard is trying to bring to Stamford Bridge.
1. Phillipe Coutinho: The 27-year-old Brazilian playmaker is one of the top names in the transfer market currently. He is heavily linked for a move to Chelsea this summer. He had the best years of his football career when he played for three and a half seasons for Liverpool. This was before moving to Barcelona in 2018.
Barcelona is trying to offload him to raise funds for new signings and he is currently on loan at Bayern Munich. Coutinho scored nine goals and provided eight assists already this season for Bayern but the German side is not interested to sign him for £105m. Barcelona can cut price the deal and Chelsea can get their man for around £50-60m if they want.
2. Timo Werner: Chelsea is continuously looking for a quality striker in the market. Tammy Abraham was given the notch to be the first choice centre forward for the Blues. Despite that, he has not been to the standard that requires playing for Chelsea. He scored only 14 goals for Chelsea this season which was clearly not good enough. Michy Batshiayi and Olivier Giroud are expected to leave. Lampard wants to bring Timo Werner from RB Leipzig to fill the gap. The 24-year-old can score all types of goals and will be available for around £60m.
3. Ben Chilwell: The Blues have struggled big time in the left flank of their defence. Marcos Alonso and Emerson both have been inconsistent in their defensive role. The Leicester star can be one of the best options for Lampard to boost his defence. Chilwell will be leaving the foxes this summer for around £50m-£70m.