Frank Lampard has opened up the possibility of Chelsea entering the race to sign Edinson Cavani, who has asked to leave Paris Saint-Germain after receiving an offer from Atlético Madrid.
Chelsea have been frustrated in their search for attacking reinforcements this month and Lampard, who said he is not opposed to doing a short-term deal in the right circumstances, was effusive in his praise for Cavani. The striker has been limited to 14 appearances for PSG this season and has informed the French champions of his desire to pursue a fresh challenge.
Atlético have already expressed a strong interest in signing the 32-year-old, who has scored 198 goals for PSG since joining the French champions in 2013, and the Spaniards believe they have a good chance of signing the Uruguay international. “It’s true that today he asked to leave,” PSG’s sporting director Leonardo said after the 1-0 win over Lorient in the French Cup on Sunday.
However Lampard made it clear he wants to bring in more firepower after his side’s 1-0 defeat against Newcastle on Saturday and he made no attempt to hide his respect for Cavani before Tuesday’s home game against Arsenal. Chelsea are struggling to land their main attacking targets this month – moves for Borussia Dortmund’s Jadon Sancho and Red Bull Leipzig’s Timo Werner will have to wait until the summer, Lyon are determined not to sell Moussa Dembélé and Crystal Palace’s £80m valuation of Wilfried Zaha is putting off potential suitors – and Cavani could provide quality competition for Tammy Abraham.
“He’s a great player,” Lampard said. “I played against him and I always loved his mentality and attitude, and obviously his goal-scoring record speaks for itself. I’m not absolutely aware of what the situation is, so we’ll see.
“He’s an experienced player, but so are many other players out there. I think we are young and we know about the transitions. The idea of bringing in experience is something I’m certainly not absolutely looking away from. Because sometimes the young players need a little bit of help, and if that’s the case then that may help us.”
While Abraham has impressed this season, scoring 15 goals in all competitions, Chelsea have lacked a cutting edge in too many games. Michy Batshuayi has fallen out of favour and Lampard has given few opportunities to Olivier Giroud, who is close to joining Internazionale. Cavani would represent an upgrade on Batshuayi and Giroud if he could adjust to the pace of English football.
Lampard added that Reece James is in contention to face Arsenal after the right-back suffered a knee injury against Newcastle. Meanwhile, reports in Turkey have claimed that Eddie Newton is close to leaving Chelsea to take up a role as Trabzonspor’s assistant coach. – Guardian
