Frank Lampard has made clear that he would be loath to lose his rising young star Anthony Gordon to former club Chelsea.
And he admitted there was a certain irony in the club where he so strongly promoted the idea of pushing home grown talent, coming after the best player off the Everton youth team production line since Wayne Rooney!
But the Goodison boss is realistic enough to know that money talks in football, and with the London club apparently able to spend without restriction and Gordon obviously possessing a justifiable ambition, then he can offer no assurances the 21-year-old with stay with the Blues.
“You can’t ask me to assure anything - that would be naïve of me to assure anything,” he said. “Selling players, just as it is with bringing players in, it has to be a joined up say so. When you’re talking about the level of player Anthony is and the value of player, we know what those kind of players go for.
“It’s a serious situation on a football and a club business level, simple as that. If you can join those two up and make the right decision… the football one is the most important to me, because that is what I’m judged on. But we know his value, and that he’ll be here at the end of the window - who knows. I don’t want to get into hypotheticals.”
Everton turned down a near £45million offer from Chelsea for the England under-21 player, who is understood to be keen to test himself at the highest level in the Champions League. Lampard knows that as a bright young star who went to Chelsea as a 22-year-old himself, he can hardly blame Gordon for following a similar route, but he argued there is a key difference.
“I had four years in the first team at West Ham. Got in at 17 and left at 22. So it is not a direct comparison. But I'm not silly, I know players can be ambitious. Chelsea is a club that is always going to in my bones because of what it did for my career, and what I got out of it, but while I work for Everton and I feel the passion of this club.
“And I feel what this club has done for individuals and what they can do for the club, and it’s my job to hold that closer than anything at the moment. I think only of what is best for Everton, what is best for me and my job.”
If that suggests Gordon may still leave before the window closes, then it seems certain Dele Alli will go, with Lampard suggesting he has to separate his personal feelings for the player, from his professional duty.
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“In my job you have to have the football side and the human side. I like Dele and I want to help him. The main thing I want to do is be a support for the players,” he said. “There is interest in Dele, that has come out publicly. That is one for us to consider and for Dele to consider.”
But while there is an agreement between Besiktas and Everton over a loan for Dele, the player himself has still not agreed to the move, and Lampard confirmed he will be in the squad to face Forest on Saturday.
