Frank Lampard reveals Chelsea owners vetoed his bid to sign Jude Bellingham and two other world-class youngsters

Frank Lampard has revealed the three players that he was blocked from signing when he was Chelsea’s manager.

Blues legend Lampard first took charge of the Stamford Bridge club back in 2019 before being replaced by Thomas Tuchel in 2021.

Lampard then returned to Chelsea at the back end of the 22/23 season after a disastrous season under both Tuchel and Graham Potter.

Lampard has since revealed that he wanted to sign three world-class talents during his time in charge of the Blues.

Speaking on John Obi-Mikel’s podcast, Lampard revealed he wanted to sign Jude Bellingham.

As per The Mirror, he said: “When I was managing at Chelsea I was desperate to bring Jude Bellingham in. But I couldn't get it through upstairs - the idea of paying £20m for someone his age.”

Lampard revealed late last season that he also wanted to sign Erling Haaland, he said: “I don't know whether he would have decided to come here anyway but I was a big fan of that [signing Haaland].

“There are some of those that happen, aren't there, that people know about or it could have been this way.”

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Lampard continued: “People talk a lot about mistakes or things that could have been in football. Whether he would have come here, I don't know but I was pushing big and on a few other players at the time. But he was the outstanding one. Was it close? He'll only know the answer to that. What stage did it get to? From our point, I was certainly pushing it. I'm not sure what the appetite was everywhere else in the club to do it.”

Lastly, Lampard revealed his desire to bring Declan Rice back to the club.

He said: “I wanted to bring in Declan Rice.

“I was like ‘this kid is going to be the captain of Chelsea for the next 10 years’. It didn't happen, anyway, it is hard to dissect people's work.”

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