Frank Lampard hopes academy product Tariq Lamptey will feel enough “love” from his stunning debut at Arsenal to sign a new Chelsea contract.
Full-back Lamptey impressed off the bench in Sunday’s 2-1 Premier League win at Arsenal, replacing Fikayo Tomori as the Blues battled to find the right tactical balance.
Under-23s regular Lamptey had been called in from his Christmas break to feature for the first team at the Emirates Stadium, with Marcos Alonso and Reece James injured.
‘My heart was racing!’— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) December 30, 2019
And now Lampard hopes the 19-year-old will commit his future to the Stamford Bridge club, especially given the support of the Blues’ backroom staff.
Asked if Lamptey could sign a new Chelsea deal, Lampard said: “We’ll see, he’s talking with the club and hopefully he feels a bit of love that we’ve parachuted him in.
“I’d seen him when I was doing my coaching badges and you do a lot of hours with the academy and youth team. I saw him train a lot and I know he has a different dimension as a right-sided wing-back.
“He has pace, a low centre of gravity and can go by people. Of course he wants to work on his end product and all the last bits.”
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s 13th league goal of the campaign handed Arsenal control for the bulk of Sunday’s Emirates clash with Chelsea.
The Blues struggled in their 3-4-3 formation, with Emerson Palmieri replaced on the half-hour in favour of a switch to 4-3-3.
Jorginho pounced on Bernd Leno’s goalkeeping howler to tap home and level the match in the last 10 minutes, before Tammy Abraham drilled a late winner.
Lamptey added pace and bite on the right flank when joining the second-half fray, leaving Lampard praising his fellow Blues coaches for trusting the youngster’s abilities.
“Lamptey’s selection is a credit to Jody Morris and Joe Edwards,” said Lampard.
“We were looking at options, and they said believe in him and trust him – because they did.
“He was a good catalyst. He gave us more of an edge to that.
“My question to Jody when he came on was whether he had the confidence and personality to deal with this, a tough game with responsibility to try to turn it. Jody said ‘yeah, no problem’.
“When he drove inside and slipped Tammy (Abraham) in I thought it was a great example of someone coming on and being fearless. Sometimes that’s what you get with youth.”
