FanShot

Giles Smith's love letter to Frank Lampard

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As part of his regular Thursday column, here is (part of) what Giles Smith would say to Super Frank, if he could. Be sure to check out the rest, it makes for a good read: "That the language people use is all wrong. Worse, the right language doesn't seem to be available. I read articles in which you are described as currently 'struggling for a place in the side', when surely we should really be talking about the extraordinary importance and value of the kind of player who is not automatically first choice at home to Swansea, but is first choice against Valencia, away in the Champions League, three days later. But there seem to be fewer off-the-peg phrases to describe that role in such a way as to lend it the required dignity. People, loving to sniff a downfall and the imminent end of things, seem to prefer a gloomier spin. We'd all be mad to join them. [...] That you are already a club legend - but that who knows what lies in store for you if, as someone widely regarded as the consummate professional, you get this next phase of the career right? Probably nothing short of immortality."