Derby County owner Mel Morris has revealed that Frank Lampard's switch to Chelsea is 'not a done deal', as he still has hope that the manager will remain with the Rams for the upcoming season.
It was expected that an announcement was imminent, especially considering the fact that Derby released a club statement yesterday stating that they have given Lampard permission to speak to Chelsea about the current managerial vacancy.
Despite this, Mel Morris has confirmed in an exclusive interview with TalkSport that no deal has been struck as of yet between Lampard and Chelsea.
Morris points to the eventuality
“When Frank met me for the first time, we talked about this opportunity and even then we knew at some stage this was going to happen [him being offered the Chelsea job], we just didn’t know when,” Morris told talkSPORT.
“So we talked about that and we both probably thought it would be some way off and, let’s face it, right now it’s still not a done deal."
The current Rams owner continued: "Let’s be blunt, as far as I’m concerned I’m hoping this guy is going to manage us next season. I’m not giving up hope on that at the moment. but you’d have to say at some point it will happen – whether it’s now or some point in the future.
For Frank Lampard, it’s a win-win. He can’t lose in this situation.”
Building something is worth doing
Interestingly, Morris did admit that if it was any other club than Chelsea who came in for Lampard, he would be more sceptical about letting him go.
“Would I have stood in his way more if was any other club? I think I probably would have been more critical about, ‘why make this move’?," he added.
“Let’s say it was a low-half Premier League coming along, I would have said: ‘Listen, another season with us and maybe we’ll be there, maybe two seasons, whatever it takes. Building something is worth doing’."
It remains to be seen if Lampard's switch back to his former club will be completed anytime soon. With the Blues expected back for pre-season work in the coming days, they'll be hoping to have a new man at the helm.