Lampard on Werner’s arrival, Chilwell, Pedro, Willian, Loftus-Cheek, talks with Abraham and more

With Chelsea preparing to resume a season interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, Blues boss Frank Lampard held a news conference zia Zoom on Friday afternoon. Here’s some of what he had to say.

On Timo Werner’s move

“He’s a player we liked. I’ve certainly followed him for a long time myself, just as a talented player, before I had this job.

“As a club, we went for him, and he certainly will strengthen us in my opinion. He’s got huge talent.

“Where we couldn’t do much business in the last couple of windows, for whatever reason, it’s given us a chance to see some youth in the team, but we were very clear that we wanted to improve.

“We feel Timo Werner is a signing who will improve us. I’m certainly very excited to have him playing for Chelsea and we’re looking forward to having him.

“He’s the type of player and type of profile we’re looking at – players who can really come here and have a big impact.

“We’ll have to give him a bit of time to adapt. The Premier League is a slightly different animal to all other leagues.

“But with the talent I think Timo has, his work ethic and personality – his humility really shone through – I’m very excited to have him.”

On competition from other clubs to sign Werner

“We worked as hard as we could. I had good conversations with him and he hopefully understands what I want to do here with the club; how we work, how we play – and it seemed like it came across as a really exciting project for him.

“He obviously had some very, very good options. It was very joined up from our end, how we went about it, and we’re just pleased that Timo’s decided to come to us.

On Callum Hudson-Odoi

“With Callum Hudson-Odoi, he had a small injury earlier on in the training process and is not match fit, albeit he’s physically fit now.”

On Fikayo Tomori

“Fikayo Tomori has got a muscle injury – probably from the stresses of trying to get fit quickly – which should probably keep him out for the next 10 days or so.”

On Ruben Loftus-Cheek

“He’s looking fit. He’s taken part in our training games and he’s worked really hard to get back.

“It’s a really difficult injury he’s had and we’ve really missed him this season.

“He’s got himself into a position where he’s fit. Obviously we will have to manage it and not over-strain him, but he is looking good going into this game.”

On Chelsea’s pursuit of Ben Chilwell

“I’m not even going to speak about Ben Chilwell or any other players, out of respect.

“We’re focusing on our game this weekend and every other Premier League team is doing the same, so I won’t get involved with any talk about future ifs or buts.”

On facing John Terry’s Aston Villa

“It’s always good to go up against JT. I’ve got huge respect for him. We’re friendly, but we both got big things at stake in this game.”

On the battle for a top-four finish

“There’s a lot of work to be done. We know there’s a lot of competition for the top four and we’re in that battle, so we’re honest about it and we need to be at our best to amass enough points to get us there.”

On whether he sympathises with out-of-contract players who are reluctant to agree to a short-term extension

“I would have sympathy with a player individually to make a decision they feel is right.

“As a club we’re trying to extend players’ (contracts) for that period. We want them to stay.

“It’s well documented that we have a couple of those conversations (with Willian and Pedro) that are ongoing. We have until next week to find a solution, hopefully.

“It would be great for us to finish with the squad that we started this campaign with and with the quality players that we’re talking about.”

On whether he has spoken to Tammy Abraham about Werner’s arrival

“I’ve spoken to Tammy before about the idea of competition (for places) and I don’t feel the need to address every player if a player comes in who might contest their position at a club like Chelsea.

“That (competition) is what it’s about. It’s been about that in the most successful years when we’ve been a successful club in the Roman Abramovich era, mainly.

“Tammy has had a very good season for us. He has to sustain and improve on that, because at Chelsea we have demands.

“I’m happy to have options. We have options in forward areas and we must have competition for places.”

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