Lampard’s contract talks stall at Chelsea

Frank Lampard’s contract talks with Chelsea have hit an initial obstacle over the length of the proposed deal, according to The Times.

The Times reports that Chelsea are offering a two year extension to his current deal that would see him tied to the club until 2011, whereas Lampard is asking for an extra four years to his deal.

Despite intense speculation that Lampard could leave Stamford Bridge to join former mentor Jose Mourinho at Inter Milan, it seems now that the England international is keen to stay on at the London club and is due to have meetings with both new manager Luiz Felipe Scolari and chief executive Peter Kenyon when he returns from holiday.

Reports claim that Scolari wants to keep Lampard at the club, despite rumours suggesting that the signing of Portuguese ace Deco would see Lampard on his way out at Stamford Bridge., and Chelsea have met the new managers demand by offering Lampard a deal that would see him become the club’s joint-top earner along with John Terry at £135,000-a-week.

However, Chelsea are reluctant to offer a long-term deal to a player who turns 30 tomorrow. The Times reports that Chelsea are set to adopt a similar system to Arsenal, who operate a system which sees players over the age of 30 offered one-year contracts.

Chelsea are said to be keen to avoid a similar mistake to the Andriy Shevchenko saga, in which they offered the Ukrainian striker a five-year deal and now seem to accept the deal as a mistake.

Lampard is keen to point out that he believes he can last playing in the Premiershio well into his thirties, a point that may be proven due to the fact that the Chelsea vice-captain has rarely missed games at Stamford Bridge.

[Source: The Times]