Jorginho no longer part of Lampard’s plans, will leave Chelsea in case of ‘fair offer’ — report

In what may be a most obvious conclusion to the evidence in front of our eyes over the past few weeks, Chelsea midfielder Jorginho is apparently “no longer part of Frank Lampard’s plans” and “will leave” the team if a “fair offer” is received.

That’s the word from the Oracle of Sarri, Alfredo Pedullà, who adds that the former Chelsea head coach will be (again) pushing for a reunion with his proverbial son at Juventus now that the Old Lady have settled their Pjanić situation.

The report runs contrary to Frank Lampard’s own words the other day, when he insisted that Jorginho was still “in his plans”. But those words also run contrary to Frank’s own team selections.

Jorginho has yet to feature for Chelsea since the Restart, and while he was suspended for the first game, he’s been healthy, fit, and available since. And yet, all he’s done is watch games from the expanded, socially distanced bench, not once seeing his number go up on the substitutions board, not even with five changes now allowed in matches. Teenage wonderboy Billy Gilmour is outpacing Jorginho in appearances 3-to-0, and at this point, it would not be surprising to see him start today against Crystal Palace over the Vice-captain either.

It’s unclear how or why Jorginho has fallen so shockingly out of favor, given all the praise earlier in the season from Lampard. In fact, before the lockdown, he had been one of the team’s leaders in minutes played, behind only César Azpilicueta. But no one’s saying anything substantive at the moment, which leaves plenty of room for reports like Pedullà’s and plenty of room to believe that there is more to it than just smoke and mirrors and idle chatter.

Jorginho has three years left on his Chelsea contract and given that he’s the most expensive midfielder in Chelsea history at €57m, the Blues are unlikely to consider any Juventus lowball a “fair offer”. That said, if he’s truly not in Lampard’s plans (and especially if others like Kai Havertz are), surely we can negotiate something useful for all involved.