Dan

Why Arsenal reject Steve Sidwell poses more of a threat to Frank Lampard than Ballack and Essien combined.

On the 74th minute Frank Lampard ambled his way off stage at the Los Angeles Home Depot replaced by a quiet young carrot top named Steve Sidwell. America must have wondered if an extra from Braveheart had just crept on. Frank was too preoccupied with a sky cam zipping over head and the selection box of celebrities, he barely noticed the former Reading man pass him by. Surprisingly, there was little indication of being star-struck on anevening of unrivalled media spectacle. Instead, Sidwell struck the star himself. Within minutes, his crashing tackle on David Beckham proved he wasn’t going to play ball. He hadn’t come to humour the circus and play fool to the occasion. This gutsy challenge was a sobering reminder that we had come to see a football match not a Hollywood love-in. But the message sounded loudest not to the American fans or his coach’s ‘go easy on Becks’ instruction but to the man he replaced: a stirring message to the supposedly ‘untouchable’ Lampard…

He may be ginger Frank, but he means business.

With a duo of Premiership titles, a host of trophies, 54 England caps, smashed records for a midfielder and perhaps most proudly of all, 2005 runner-up World and European player of the year. Few in England’s history have amassed such a prestigious CV as Frank Lampard. Yet in the last year, Chelsea fans fondness has waned for a number of reasons. Firstly, his England form. Long has the debate for his inclusion gone on, but his failings have arrived at the general consensus that he should finally make way. McClaren has insisted on giving Lampard the luxury spot of attacking-midfielder, indeed, the spirited Gerrard has forever had to settle as a utility player, a subordinate side-kick. Who cannot be impressed by the Liverpool heartbeat’s gung-ho leadership and terrifying ability to drag his side to victory? Yet Chelsea fans have had to endorse the denial of Gerrard’s rightful crown as the England midfield chieftain. McClaren has inherited the same misinterpretation of Lampard as his predecessor – the truth is he is not a playmaker but a central midfielder who attacks from deep. Without wingers he is redundant as the forward creative source.
Lampard has also lost favour from his flirtations with Barcelona and of course, his ‘bits on the side’. It’s difficult to ascertain truth behind allegations from armchair tabloids but the smoke of disloyalty suggests definite fire. Fans might chuckle at Lampard’s conquests and they couldn’t care less about his WAG queen. What angers them is his infidelity as an association to the club rather than the context of his marital vows. It implies a capacity to renege, to betray. Such concerns are only amplified by his refusal to sign a new contract.

The rumours about Lampard’s potential exit are more a probe into the climate of his popularity than news of any transfer. Normally agents will allow a trickle of stories to leak out in order to challenge the host club to put forward a new contract, pressuring higher wages or more bonuses. But in this case, Steve Kutner, Lampard’s agent, is instead testing the water, trying to gauge whether the Chelsea faithful will revolt at the prospect. Without their presence in the matter such a strategy is useless. Frank’s equivocatory dithering only serves to incite their frustration rather than protest. Links to Barcelona and Juventus have provided little response from Chelsea fans who believe he has tip-toed over the downward slope. A voyage to Catalonia would be an admirable and understandable change of scenery for a player of his service to the club.

Should he remain at Chelsea, the season will be his most crucial yet. Facing competition from the monstrous Michael Essien and football scholar Michael Ballack is tough enough but Steve Sidwell, dubbed his ‚Äòcarbon copy‚Äô, is perhaps the most threatening. A man familiar with rejection, exiled from his boyhood club Arsenal. He has earned the scars from unfashionable battlers Reading with whom he was a central figure in their impressive performance last season. ‚ÄúI‚Äôm not here to make up the numbers‚Äù. A clich?© coined so often, it would have fallen deaf on Lampard‚Äôs ears. Though he might be presumed Lampard‚Äôs doppelganger, his inspiration for joining the Blues would have risen from seeing Essien‚Äôs yearning desire for success rather than Lampard‚Äôs cruising performances whose thirst for glory has met satiety, at least in this country. For a club to succeed players without honours are just as essential as those with, and Chelsea will wish to see an Englishman with hunger marshal their global midfield into the future ‚Äì an attribute which Sidwell not only qualifies but seems to epitomise too.

Just as Beckham took the opportunity to accent his exit from the England captaincy, so Lampard has the same power to engineer a deservedly fond quietus from Stamford Bridge. After all he has achieved, he risks being remembered as an encumbrance rather than legend of the new Chelsea generation.