Frank Lampard: Legend.

[OfWolfAndBiggs]

Best midfielder of the PL era and our greatest ever player, reckon he'll make a good manager too if he goes down that route. 

[Chelsea SW6]

I wonder if he makes an appearance at the bridge on Saturday.  Not to play of course, but it would be good to sing out Super Frankie Lampard one last time.

[LesByatt]

Been an emotional day, seeing all lampsys goals and all the kind words

hopefully see him back at the bridge soon

good luck with your retirement from playing football Frank

[Ham]

Get him signed up to a coaching contact asap.  

Greatest ever Chelsea player. 

[Sleeping Dave]

One of the worlds best midfielders of his generation, the best English midfielder any living person can remember, the best player to have ever graced the Premier League and without a doubt Chelsea's best ever player. A true gentleman and a credit to his family and the club. When he scored against us the Chelsea fans sang his name and gave him an ovation. His reaction? Tears. 

The crowd reaction when he broke our goal scoring record at Villa Park( as a midfielder!) - carnage. When he captained us in our greatest ever night in Munich. When he won us the league. Twice. When he won us the cup. The time when he finished second in the Ballon D'Or after an outrageously good Ronaldinho. The penalty against Liverpool in the Champions League only days after his mum passed. The countless of goals he's scored and the equally impressive number of assists he racked up. 

Three league titles, one champions league, one Europa league, four FA cups, two league cups and 106 England caps. Between 2004 and 2006 he was the best player in the world together with Ronaldinho. 

He was truly unique and overshadowed anything the red tops could line up. People debated who was best between Lampard and Gerrard. In truth it was not even a contest. Frank won hands down - both as a player and as a man. 

We'll talk about him 100 years from now. There will never be a midfielder like him ever again. That much is certain. 211 Chelsea goals... As a midfielder. It's so crazy you can hardly believe it unless you witnessed it yourself. If he doesn't get a statue outside the new ground it'll be a disgrace of epic proportions. 

Take a bow Frank. What a career you've had.

Edit: oh and perhaps the most impressive stat of them all, scoring double figures for ten straight seasons in the Premier League between 2003/04 to 2012/13. 130 PL goals... Read that again and think about what it actually means. It's not human. It's out of this world. It's fantasy. Only it actually happened. ****ing hell. Even I'm getting impressed all over again just reading of his accomplishments never mind living through them. What a ****ing legend.

Steven Gerrard? Who?!?

Edited February 2, 2017 by Sleeping Dave

[Mark Kelly]

Brilliant Dave , well said.

[xCELERYx]

What a player. Been a favourite of mine right throughout growing up. It was weird not seeing him the last few seasons in a Chelsea shirt, going to be a little weirder now knowing his career has come to a close. A real gem of a player. Hopefully he returns to the club in some capacity and he'll be able to contribute to our success going forward in other ways. 

[A Blue Essien]

18 hours ago, chelsea_matt said:

Thanks for everything, Frank. Not just one of the best midfielders ever but one of the greatest players of all time. 

 

15 hours ago, OfWolfAndBiggs said:

Best midfielder of the PL era and our greatest ever player, reckon he'll make a good manager too if he goes down that route. 

 

9 hours ago, Sleeping Dave said:

One of the worlds best midfielders of his generation, the best English midfielder any living person can remember, the best player to have ever graced the Premier League and without a doubt Chelsea's best ever player.

Yeah, certainly our best ever player. Greatest goal scoring midfielder ever, and for me in the top 5 to ever grace the league.

Oh and great post Dave. 

 

On a separate note, which was Frank's best goal? 

[Sleeping Dave]

18 minutes ago, A Blue Essien said:

 

 

Yeah, certainly our best ever player. Greatest goal scoring midfielder ever, and for me in the top 5 to ever grace the league.

Oh and great post Dave. 

 

On a separate note, which was Frank's best goal? 

Cheers!

But what a hard question to answer. There's so many angles to consider. Importance of the goal, technical execution, sheer power or what type of crowd reaction it created. 

Technically there's three that stand out to me. The half turn volley against Bayern, the byline curl at the Nou Camp and the outrageous chip away to Hull. 

Importance it's hard to look beyond the 2-0 goal at the Reebok in 2005.

But there's so many to chose from. A lot of long distance beauties as well. What about that winner against Stoke at home in the 93rd minute in 2008/09? A ferocious left footed drive that almost blew the goal away. It's a goal that just disappears when compared to all the other 210 goals he scored but what a crowd reaction it was. Everyone at the Bridge went absolutely mental! 

Or how the crowd spilled over on the pitch after he broke the record at Villa Park. What a feeling! People went crazy! 

I'm feeling very nostalgic right now and even though I'm sure this feeling will abide over time, supporting a Chelsea without Lampard just feels a bit less exciting. When JT hangs up his boots four of the biggest players in our history will have left - Lamps, JT, Drogba and Cech. All four would easily be in my top five of best ever Chelsea players. In that order with Zola at fifth. 

[Martin1905]

Dave nailed it with his comments about his best/most important goals. Those three against Hull, Bayern and Barcelona are all out of this world.

My personal opinion though  is the Barcelona goal was his best. Absolutely outrageous.  The reaction from the Barcelona defenders says it all. They were dumbfounded.