Everton have made a winless start to the Premier League season, but Frank Lampard has one triumph. There were 48 hours remaining in the transfer window when he declared victory in the battle for Anthony Gordon. Perhaps it was a rearguard action worthy of Jordan Pickford from the Everton manager: with fewer resources, he repelled Chelsea’s advances.
He had set a deadline, he said, for any move for Gordon, and it had passed. “It is too late,” he insisted. Lampard has forged a bond with Evertonians by identifying with their club. Chelsea’s greatest goalscorer, and perhaps their greatest player, has frustrated them and kept his prized asset. “He is our player,” he said, and “our”, for Lampard, now means Everton.
