Scolari spoke in more than reasonable English (which will have no doubt left Clive Tyldesley with a red face after saying that Scolari couldn’t speak the language!). 

"I was very happy because I asked if he wants to stay and he said 'yes, I will stay at Chelsea”  said Scolari. 

"I met him on Monday and told him that I like him very much as a player and as a person and I asked him if he wanted to stay, not only for this season but for longer.” 

"After we had spoken for 15 minutes, he said he wants to stay and play for Chelsea for many years. I am very happy because I think Chelsea need Lampard and I think he is with us for more than one year."

Chelsea rejected an official approach from Inter yesterday - Chelsea's website on Tuesday stated: "We have informed Inter that we will not enter into any discussions regarding the transfer."

However Inter President Moratti believes that the matter might not be over just yet: 

"There was an offer and we confirm it. However, we don't want to create any big problems.  They replied that they have no intention of negotiating, as was their right. Now we will see."

So now it will be down to the club to dot the “I´s” and cross the “T´s” on a new deal with Lampard – probably around 130K a week, image rights concessions… and most importantly a time period of 3-4 years.  

Lampard has held out to get the right deal and a small minority of Chelsea fans have said that the deal he wants is down to greed; I just cannot agree with that.  One Chelsea fan astutely made the following points: 

According to France Football for example Ballack's salary is 9.24m euros compared to Lampard's 7.2m. In addition Ballack earns 4.2m a year from marketing deals, compared to 3.3m for Lampard. 

Most recent earnings figures in euros for top players -marketing income in brackets - are: 

Beckham 31m (25m)

Ronaldinho 24.1m (15.5m)

Messi 23m (16m)

C. Ronaldo 19.5m (10m)

Henry 16.8m (8.5m)

Terry 13.9m (3.9m)

Ballack 13.8 (4.2m)

Ronaldo 13.4 (9m)

Kaka 12.9 (5m)

Gerrard 11.8m (3.9m)

Shevchenko 11.5 (2.1m)

Rooney 11.5 (4m)

Owen 11.1 (4.5m)

Del Piero 11m (6.5m)

Cannavaro 10.8m (4.9m)

Drogba 10.0m (3.5m)

Lampard 10.7m (3.3m)

Totti 9.8m ( 3.8m)

Casillas 8.8m (2.4m)

Toni 8.4m (2.4m) 

Another point about Lampard's earnings:  In 2005 he was No 6 in the top 10, in 2006 he was No 8 and in 2007 he was No 17. 

ALL these salaries and earnings are obscene, by definition. But Lampard isn't out of line with his peers in seeking extravagant pay levels. Especially as he's playing for the wealthiest club in the world. 

Good points indeed in my view.  You only have to look at the names above him and then compare performances. 

Where can you find a consistent 20+ goal scorer from midfield anywhere in the world? ANSWER: is that they don’t exist other than Frank himself. 

Frank had his best goals to games ratio last season:  20 goals in 38 games, 10 of those in the league in 24 games and has averaged 20 goals a season over the last 4 years.  Countless assists, running from box to box and he’s no flat track bully like other so called “stars” – he scores against the big teams in the big games such as Barcelona, Man Utd, Bayern Munich… 

With Deco now in the side, it will be interesting to see how Scolari harnesses the wealth of talent he has in midfield: 4-2-3-1..so he may not want to play with wide men...so Ballack, Lamps and Deco could be behind Etoó if that’s true ??  Or could the likes of Robinho or Quaresma come in and the trio of Lampard, Ballack and Deco be rotated?

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