Lampard: I tried to convince Chelsea to sign Haaland but they weren't interested

Interim Chelsea manager Frank Lampard says he pushed the club to sign Erling Haaland in 2019. Photo: Darren Walsh/Getty Images

Frank Lampard questioned 'appetite'. last regime at Chelsea under former owner Roman Abramovich to support his bid to sign Erling Haaland to the club four years ago.

Haaland was Lampard's target when he was Chelsea's permanent boss. manager in 2019 and the striker was still at Red Bull Salzburg.

Borussia Dortmund eventually paid €22.5m on Haaland's contract and Chelsea have since witnessed the Norwegian move to » Manchester City, where he broke the Premier League record for most points scored in a single season, surpassing the previous record of 34 goals set by Alan Shearer and Andy Cole.

Haaland will look to add to his 52 goals this season and help City secure the Premier League title against Lampard's interim manager Chelsea on Sunday.

On his bid to sign Haaland, Lampard said : "I definitely insisted on it. I'm not sure what appetite there was everywhere in the club to do this. The competition was great because he was an outstanding player. I think there was a buyout clause at the time, which was relatively reasonable given the player.

“People talk about mistakes, would he come, I don’t know, but I pressed a few other players a lot, but he was outstanding. I think he's special and I thought he'd adapt right away."

Haaland surpassed Premier's record -league in single-season scoring in first year with City. Credit: Katherine Iville/Getty Images

It was during the preparation for the pre-season friendly against Salzburg in Austria that Lampard and his team first became aware of Haaland, who played in the first half of that game, and continued to follow him.

«We played against him in pre-season match at Salzburg and he was great.» Lampard said. «Thanks to him, I like to see players of this level, with such character and thirst to be the best, which he proved.»

Milan want to sign Chelsea midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who has one year contract at Stamford Bridge is one of the players the club are ready to capitalize on.

Chelsea are desperate to cut their squad this summer. and want to move on to players who have less than two years of contract left and who are not going to sign new contracts.

Loftus Cheek is considered open to the prospect of moving to Italy and reconnecting. with former teammates Fikayo Tomori and Olivier Giroud. But talks have not progressed yet as Milan do not want to pay a large amount for a player who only has 12 months on a Chelsea contract.