Blues to reject Inter bid for Lampard

10:02pm Tuesday 8th July 2008

Chelsea will reject Inter Milan's £7.95million bid for Frank Lampard.

The club are adamant that they will not budge on the sale of the England midfielder despite Inter's first official offer for the player.

Chelsea have made it clear to Inter that they 'will not enter into any discussions' over his transfer.

Inter's official offer arrived hours after new coach Luiz Felipe Scolari insisted that both Lampard and AC Milan target Didier Drogba have a future with him at Chelsea.

Although Lampard's agent issued a statement saying that his client's future remains unresolved, the player himself told Scolari that he is happy to stay at Stamford Bridge for years to come.

Jose Mourinho, now coach at Inter, is desperate to land Lampard but Chelsea are equally determined to hang on to their freescoring midfielder.

Scolari was officially unveiled by Chelsea at Cobham's Hilton Hotel and immediately told Mourinho and the rest of Europe that his top players were staying.

Chelsea had earlier announced that they had rejected an 'approach' for Lampard from Inter Milan and they will now turn down the official offer from the Italians.

"I met Frank Lampard and I spoke to him," said Scolari. "I like him too much as a player and as a person. I asked him if he wanted to stay at Chelsea, not only for this season but for more time.

"He told me after 15 minutes that he wants to stay and he wants to play for Chelsea for many years. I am very happy because I think Chelsea needs Lampard and he likes Chelsea. Now it's a minimum of questions to solve it. I think Lampard is with us for more time than one year."

Leisure articles