Frank Lampard says his new contract had nothing to do with Jose Mourinho...

ESPN FC, née Soccernet ...

... by the way, I really don't understand this whole trend of rebranding outlets that cover football as something-something FC. SiriusXM did with their Channel 94, which is mostly football talk and coverage. It is now SiriusXM FC. YOU'RE NOT A FOOTBALL CLUB! Yes, ok, it's the "home for soccer," but that doesn't make it a "Football Club." Then ESPN turned Soccernet into ESPN FC, which, also, surprisingly ISN'T A FOOTBALL CLUB. Ye gods.

... Anyway.

ESPN FC is running a set of quotes from Frank Lampard, wherein the Chelsea legend sheds some behind-the-scenes light on the new contract. The quotes aren't sourced at all, nor is there a name on the article, although they may have come from Thursday's award dinner where Frank gave similar sound bytes to Neil Barnett and Chelsea TV.

From January onwards, I was allowed to look at other options.

BUT

Talks with the club had [also] been ongoing...

SO

I wanted to get my head down at Chelsea and show that I could still do it, remain fit and contribute.

That last line is classic Lampard.

But wait, here comes the juicy part:

I didn't make any enquiries nor were guarantees made to me about who the next manager would be.

So that's a bit different because I'm sure many of us assumed that there were some ... Special ... behind-the-scene machinations to bring about this amicable resolution to the contract standoff.

That being said, maybe he's just not really allowed to say anything about it - or he's using some common sense if he does know something that we're not supposed to know just yet. We're on a need to know basis, and we don't need to know.

I have the faith that the club will make the right decision. [...] This is a great club with great players and the idea of certain managers arriving does excite me.

Because that to me essentially reads: "Well, I thought about leaving, but then they basically told me that Daddy Mourinho is coming home so I took a small pay-cut because he's the bestest and smells like honey and wine and winning."