4/6/2023 0 Comments Candela la barca![]() He was in the first XI for all 38 Premier League games that season. John Terry and Eidur Gudjohnsen were also dropped that night and the trio spoke to each other about what it may mean for their futures.īut Lampard was too good for Ranieri to ignore. The arrival of new owner Roman Abramovich in 2003 meant signings galore and increased competition - being named on the bench for the opening Champions League group game at Sparta Prague, with new acquisitions Claude Makelele, Juan Sebastian Veron and Geremi starting instead, was a concern. Had Ranieri’s side not beaten Liverpool on the final day of the following season to secure Champions League football, he would have been one of the players sold to get them out of financial trouble. It took four months to get off the mark in the Premier League (in a 5-1 win over Bolton). People forget, though, that his rise to prominence at Chelsea wasn’t completely smooth. The former midfielder is the only non-striker in the top 10 of the highest Premier League goalscorers with 177, the vast majority of which came in a Chelsea shirt (30 goals in that tally were for West Ham and Manchester City, where he spent the 2014-15 season after leaving Stamford Bridge). Lampard loves nothing more than the challenge of proving people wrong and, just as Redknapp (who is also his uncle) predicted, his career did take off. “No bacon sandwiches here, nothing like that, they are very on the ball with diet and coaching and fitness training,” Lampard remarked during his low-key unveiling to a handful of journalists at the club’s old, run-down training ground in Harlington, with the sound of planes taking off and landing at nearby Heathrow Airport in the background. The West Ham supporters in the room didn’t seem convinced that night and nor were many of their Chelsea counterparts when Claudio Ranieri convinced Lampard to move to Stamford Bridge rather than Leeds United or Aston Villa. West Ham manager Harry Redknapp once argued at a fans’ forum - the clip of his speech would eventually go viral on social media in subsequent years - how Lampard would go “right to the very top”. It is hard to believe now, but not every Chelsea fan was thrilled when the club announced they had agreed a deal to sign Frank Lampard from West Ham for £11 million in the summer of 2001. ![]() It’s a bit of fun, but hopefully a bit of fun you’ll enjoy between now and August. You might not agree with their choices, you won’t agree with the order. Picking 50 from 309,949 options is an impossible task. You can read Oliver Kay’s introduction to our Golden Games series (and the selection rules) here - as well as the full list of all the articles as they unfold. To celebrate 30 years of the Premier League, The Athletic is paying tribute to the 50 greatest individual performances in its history, as voted for by our writers.
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