AVB-Lamps

Depois de um fim de semana em que o Chelsea regressou às vitórias (3-0 ante o Bolton) com Ashley Cole, Essien e Frank Lampard - marcou um golo e fez um jogo razoavelmente bom - no onze titular, em Inglaterra fala-se de uma vitória da velha guarda do Chelsea contra André Villas-Boas. Fala-se de que este perdeu a sua dignidade e que não sabe o que faz... Uma estupidez na minha opinião. Felizmente há quem saiba avaliar as situações e portanto deixo-vos aqui mais um pequeno texto do Guardian, desta vez de Jacob Steinberg, em que este nos dá o exemplo de Giggs, exemplo esse que devia ser seguido por Lampard. Concordo. 

"Lampard should follow Giggs's example

A goal and a fine display against Bolton Wanderers? Well then, England's Frank Lampard is back and nasty foreign man André Villas-Boas was a fool for leaving him out of the Chelsea side against Napoli. Maybe not. A top English player is always going to have his media cheerleaders who will root for him when he's taken on by a foreign manager, especially one who's in his first season in England. Scoring against Bolton does not necessarily mean Villas-Boas is wrong to think that Lampard's best days are behind him and the Portuguese could point to a string of irrelevant displays from the midfielder before Saturday to illustrate his point.

Yet there is an inherent stupidity to the battle between Villas-Boas and his senior players – if only they would realise, they are essentially all striving for the same goal: Chelsea winning. Clearly Chelsea must freshen their squad and it is part of Villas-Boas's mandate to bring in fresh blood, yet the natural consequence of that is not necessarily freezing out the older players. As they proved against Bolton – Didier Drogba got the second goal – they can still be useful, just not every week. Getting older means you can play less, you get injured more and you recover more slowly, but it does not have to herald the end, as Ryan Giggs demonstrated by scoring a last-minute winner for Manchester United at Norwich City on his 900th appearance for the club.

Lampard has been at Chelsea for more than 10 years and should be looking to see out his career at Stamford Bridge, instead of leaving under a cloud. Perhaps it is down to Villas-Boas, whose man-management is also in question, to convince the players to accept a lesser role, while still retaining their seniority in the dressing room. If it's good enough for Giggs and Paul Scholes, it's good enough for Lampard.JS"

in Guardian.co.uk