{"id":550453,"date":"2020-04-27T07:12:24","date_gmt":"2020-04-27T11:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/?p=550453"},"modified":"2020-04-27T07:12:24","modified_gmt":"2020-04-27T11:12:24","slug":"report-chelsea-boss-frank-lampard-makes-contact-with-dries-mertens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/04\/27\/report-chelsea-boss-frank-lampard-makes-contact-with-dries-mertens\/","title":{"rendered":"REPORT: Chelsea Boss Frank Lampard Makes Contact With Dries Mertens"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/clubs\/chelsea\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chelsea<\/a> manager <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/268df6b1\/Frank-Lampard?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Frank Lampard<\/a> began talks with <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/2020\/04\/10\/report-napoli-expect-manchester-united-target-kalidou-koulibaly-to-leave\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Napoli<\/a> midfielder <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/89b2c8a9\/Dries-Mertens?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dries Mertens<\/a> according to reports from <a href=\"https:\/\/gianlucadimarzio.com\/it\/giroud-inter-lazio-chelsea-mertens-calciomercato-news\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Gianluca Di Marzio.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Lampard has shown long-term interest in the Belgian midfielder. A possible move appears to be taking shape following the recent discussions between both Chelsea and Mertens.<\/p>\n<h2>Frank Lampard Makes Contact With Dries Mertens<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Dries Mertens has reportedly been lined up for a Premier League move.<\/p>\n<p>Gossip: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/v5z5VwEdv3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/v5z5VwEdv3<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Ia8WC97otb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/Ia8WC97otb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 BBC Sport (@BBCSport) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BBCSport\/status\/1254722163023785985?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 27, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Mertens is Lampard&#8217;s Long-Term Target<\/h3>\n<p>Chelsea looked set to make an offer for the 32-year-old midfielder during the January transfer window.<\/p>\n<p>But any potential transfer did not go ahead as the Belgian international chose to run down the remaining six months on his contract at Napoli.<\/p>\n<p>Lampard has shown regular interest in Mertens in recent months and the latest discussions seem promising.<\/p>\n<p>The midfielder scored 12 goals and made six assists for Napoli in all competitions before the season was suspended in March.<\/p>\n<h3>Mertens&#8217; Napoli Contract Situation<\/h3>\n<p>Despite the ongoing interest from Chelsea, Napoli chairman Aurelio De Laurentiis and Mertens <a href=\"https:\/\/gianlucadimarzio.com\/it\/mertens-rinnovo-contratto-napoli-calciomercato-news-1-marzo-2020\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reportedly held talks in March over a new contract<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Mertens and De Laurentiis took part in face-to-face discussions last month. The club <a href=\"https:\/\/gianlucadimarzio.com\/it\/mertens-rinnovo-contratto-napoli-calciomercato-news-1-marzo-2020\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">seemingly offered the experienced midfielder a two-year contract extension<\/a> to remain in Naples.<\/p>\n<p>However, with just two months left on his contract at Napoli, and with no new developments in his contract situation since March, the Belgian may be edging closer to a move away from the Serie A club this summer.<\/p>\n<h3>Change at Chelsea<\/h3>\n<p>Belgian striker <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/2020\/01\/26\/michy-batshuayi-fails-to-secure-chelsea-future-after-fa-cup-goal-against-hull\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Michy Batshuyai<\/a> and Brazilian winger <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/2020\/04\/02\/report-willian-free-transfer-on-the-cards\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Willian<\/a> seem surplus to requirements under Lampard.<\/p>\n<p>Lampard seems eager to add more youthful players to his squad in preparation for next season, but Mertens would add some much-needed experience at the Bridge as Lampard looks to rejuvenated his squad.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"_bJAwCpqT6Zqcq6OziaKvw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1208692937\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'_bJAwCpqT6Zqcq6OziaKvw',sig:'zgMIBKukGWM1S_03gmidJ0X1pVUbdqDMzO2UEHQKCnM=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1208692937',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chelsea manager Frank Lampard began talks with Napoli midfielder Dries Mertens according to reports from Gianluca Di Marzio. Lampard has shown long-term interest in the Belgian midfielder. A possible move appears to be taking shape following the recent discussions between both Chelsea and Mertens. Frank Lampard Makes Contact With Dries Mertens &nbsp; Dries Mertens has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3338,"featured_media":550465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11,2,5,28],"tags":[4063,46,1407,1670,1297,660,895,48,136],"class_list":["post-550453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-premier-league","category-chelsea","category-featured","category-serie-a","category-transfers","tag-2019-20-premier-league","tag-chelsea","tag-chelsea-transfers","tag-driers-mertens","tag-football-transfer-news","tag-frank-lampard","tag-napoli","tag-serie-a","tag-world-football"],"modified_by":"Nat Goodlad, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3338"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}