Can Mark Warburton’s Rangers really lure Lampard to Ibrox?
Depending on your bookmaker of choice, Rangers are among the early favourites to become Frank Lampard’s next club.
Lampard, arguably the finest goalscoring midfielder of his generation, announced on Monday he was leaving New York City FC after 18 months in Major League Soccer. His next move, he says, will be announced in due course.
So, could it be Ibrox?
Why not? With Niko Kranjcar injured and Joey Barton out of the picture, there’s a space to be seized in Mark Warburton’s squad. No disrespect to Scottish football, but it is certainly somewhere that even a 38-year-old Lampard could still excel.
Then there’s his 2015 encounter with Rangers chairman Dave King – at Lampard’s former club Chelsea – to consider, as well as the two clubs’ mutual admiration for one another. Have either of these things planted a seed? It’s not beyond the realms of possibility.
But, really?
Barton may be gone, but he was only eating away at around £20,000 a week, whereas Lampard’s equivalent pay packet is likely to have been well into six figures. If he were to come to Rangers, it would need to be for the love of it, you’d think.
And even then, could the Gers really compete with the lure of potential returns to Chelsea or West Ham United – where the Englishman’s business remains, perhaps, unfinished?
Besides, do Rangers need another big name? They’ve hardly been any worse in the absence of the last one.
Regardless, here’s what the fans are saying…
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