Super Frankie Lampard: a Chelsea legend retires

He's a legend. He's a legend. The greatest Chelsea player ever. He's certainly been, you know, a kind of idol and someone I aspire to be. In training, around the place, off the field, he was a great character. An absolute hero with the fans, with the players as well, and what he'd done and how he pushed us as a group, individually and collectively. I've never come across anyone who works as hard as he does on the field to improve his game. Frank Lampard's someone that I watched when I was younger, when he was at West Ham and obviously at Chelsea. One thing I've always admired about him is the way he speaks and the way he communicates his career at Chelsea and England. He's always a really good speaker and someone that you want to listen to him and you believe him when he speaks. He's amazing. I mean, apart from being an absolutely fantastic player, when you meet Frank, he's a fantastic person. I remember my first day here, I was like a baby. I shake his hand and it was a good memory for me. As a man and a person, and I'd like to say friend, he was a tremendous guy. He was a leader as well, which is important to us, because it's important to have leaders in the right position so we could get that little bit extra out of players. And that's what Frank did for us. You know, we all know where he came from. I was across from West Ham, a senior Lampard, and he got the stick for it. But you know what, he found a club for himself and he was loved. What a loyal servant to Chelsea and what a talent. And berated and underestimated by a lot of people as well. Belittled by the press a lot of the time and other fans. I mean, you hear people putting him down, but you cannot argue with the amount of goals he scored. Frank Lampard, for me, is an idol for me. Every training he played good, every game he played good. He made me very proud. I left that number 8 in one of the most famous players ever at Chelsea. So he represented that number 8 in an incredible way, which is also special. For me, it's a new number. I always played number 11, but now it's number 8. And Frank Lampard, it's a beautiful number. I think this year is a good number for me. You know exactly what he meant to me. All the goals, because people are saying I scored a lot of goals, but I think he was involved in all of my goals. The partnership with him was incredible. I think he was the greatest player Chelsea's had, right through their history. Because he not only did the job of goal scoring, he created, he worked hard in midfield. He was just fantastic. I think he knew what was happening around him. His head, if you watched him, his head was always on the move, he was swivelling left, right, and he knew where people were. He was able to play short or long, old. He had everything like that. And then when the ball was in the last third of the pitch, he transformed himself into a goal scorer. You watch him in the last third of the pitch, when he's done everything you'd want a goal scorer to do, Frank Dunne. For any goal scorer, he was a role model to copy. To see the way he ran to the near post and then ducked out to the far, and vice versa. And he anticipated things coming back from the keeper. People sort of say, oh lucky man. But that's not luck. That's anticipation and thinking, well this could happen, and taking that chance. Fantastic. He was the greatest goal scoring midfielder. Certainly his generation worked in world football. He never let Chelsea down. He'd always come up with the goods. To be a midfielder and score that many goals, that just tells you how good a player he has been. And what an achievement to be the top scorer of this club throughout all time. I just think that the way he striked the ball, and the way he could be in the opposition's box, and the next minute be in your own box. That for me was amazing. What a complete player he was. A man that was a professional, that knew his job. He knew where to be, what position to be, what to do. And he did it without complaint. You can't find a more professional person than he is. He does well in training, he always does 100%. And I think that way he's achieved all his goals. He went to the managers, all the managers that he's had, and said, I don't want to rest, I do not want to rest, I want to play. He was like an engine. A bit similar to my engine, perhaps he's a bit taller than me as well. But he was always available, always there, always there to score a goal. Always important goals that were very important to Chelsea at that time. He's an honest guy and an honest player, and works very hard. I'm reading Harry Redknapp's book at the moment, and he mentions Frank in it, and says that he's a consummate professional, and someone that's always worked hard from a very young age. I'm certainly honoured to wear the same shirt as Frank Lampard, and I hope him all the best in the future. There's a lot of gifted football players, and some of them probably don't work as hard as others. But you see the ones that really must work hard, and have an exceptional gift, and I think Frank Lampard is certainly one of those. You see the other players talking about him, putting the graft in, the extra time on the training field. Having, sometimes, the courage and the confidence to play the game, to take the shots from outside the box, to lead the team, to be a match winner. I think he has those attributes in his character, and you see it rubs off on so many other players. He's an exceptional player and a terrific goal scorer. A specialist. Frank, a professional that is always available to play, and a player that you will know, sooner or later, is going to make a difference on the pitch. The legacies left behind for those coming through the club, and those still at the club, is brilliant. The likes of Gianfranco Zola, the legacy they left behind, that people wanted to emulate. I think Frank Lampard has done the same, that people want to emulate. He'll be used by coaches, whether they be first-team coaches or youth-team coaches, as the benchmark of professionalism, of what you have to do to achieve what he's done. He's been massive, he's been the face of it. He's obviously very similar to JT, the two players that you think of when you think of Chelsea, John Terry and Frank Lampard. Obviously, if we can have players in this club, who go on to become someone like Lampard and like John Terry, where we become the face of Chelsea now, it's got to be a role model for us. Hopefully, a couple of us can go on and become the Frank Lampard of the ladies' team. When we talk about Frank Lampard, you have to be very, very positive. He's one of the biggest legends in the club's history. Maybe one of the most important players Chelsea ever had. Frank Lampard has just got to be up there. He's one of the greatest. I agree there should be, one day, a statue to the man at this ground. We know everything in the club. He did for this club. He's one of the best midfielders in the world. Now he leaves the club. Everybody's sad, but sometimes you cannot stay in the club. I respect him for his career. I would say he's arguably been the best player for Chelsea for many, many seasons. He's been just an unbelievable servant to this football club. He was a big signing when we signed him from West Ham for big money back then. There was a lot of pressure on him. To go on and to do what he's done at the club, for me, there's no better. For me, before that, it would have been Zola. Lamps has been an absolute legend at this football club, and his legacy will remain forever.