Lampard will need to wait until the summer to get the players he needs at Chelsea, probably

It should be well known by now that clubs generally don’t like to sell their players in the middle of the season, especially their best-performing ones who would be most in demand and would feature most often in transfer rumours. It is only common sense, after all, to not want to disrupt a team like that, and have to scramble to find a replacement who might need time to acclimatize to his new surroundings, and so on.

Therefore, it should come as no surprise that Frank Lampard and Chelsea will likely have to wait until the summer to get the players who would actually improve to the current squad, as reported by Nizaar Kinsella for Goal.

Chelsea have been linked frequently with the likes of Jadon Sancho and Timo Werner, but with RB Leipzig atop the Bundesliga, and Borussia Dortmund fighting to play in the Champions League next season, things were always going to be complicated. In case of Werner, it’s still unknown whether his release clause is active in January, or whether he even has a release clause at all, but Werner has reportedly decided against switching clubs mid-season anyway. Wilfried Zaha’s situation is playing along similar lines, with Crystal Palace trying to keep the player until at least the end of this season (even though Zaha is more motivated to move as he wants to follow his ambitions of playing for a ‘Champions League’ club).

Similar concerns could stop plenty of outgoing moves from developing as well. Marc Guehi isn’t one of those however — the 20-year-old centre back, who’s currently fifth choice for the first-team, has been linked with a loan move to several Premier League and Championship sides. On the other hand, Emerson Palmeiri wants to stay and fight for his Chelsea place instead of moving back to Italy. Even if (when?) Chelsea buy a better left-back, a deputy will still be needed, and either Emerson or Alonso can fill that role.

One fullback whom Chelsea would definitely like to keep is Tariq Lamptey. The youngster dazzled with his pace, skills, and reading of the game on his debut against Arsenal and it’s likely that he will get another chance to do so this weekend, in the FA Cup third round match against Nottingham Forest. Lamptey spoke of his happiness after making his senior debut, and hopefully that will turn into him signing a new contract instead of making a switch to Wolverhampton Wanderers or PSG (which ex-Chelsea academy GK Marcin Bulka might be regretting at this point).