Jose Mourinho attempted one of the craziest swap deals in Chelsea's history that would've seen Frank Lampard leave

Frank Lampard came "very close" to being part of one of the biggest swap deals in Chelsea history after "an extraordinary offer" was put on the table.

The 46-year-old, who is Chelsea's all-time top goalscorer with 211 goals in 648 games, will go down as one of the Premier League greats.

In total, he spent 13 trophy-laden years at Stamford Bridge between 2001 and 2014, wining three league titles, four FA Cups, two League Cups and the Champions League.

But the midfielder almost left Chelsea in 2008, when Inter Milan made an "extraordinary" offer for Lampard, who opened up on that deal in an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport in 2010.

"Everyone knows that I was very close to Inter two years ago," he said. "An extraordinary offer. But the loss of my mother marked me, I didn't know what to do. But at Chelsea things have gone well."

Lampard added: "I have three years left on my contract and I want to continue for as long as possible, like [Paolo] Maldini and [Ryan] Giggs."

So what was the offer? It is said Inter Milan, who were managed by Jose Mourinho at the time, had offered Brazilian striker Adriano as part of a potential swap deal.

At the time, Lampard was refusing to sign a new four-year contract reported to be worth £140,000 a week and a reunion with Mourinho looked to be on the cards.

In fact, Inter director Gabriele Oriali made a bold statement in July 2008, saying: "What is certain is the player wants strongly to come to Inter."

Adriano's former agent, Gilmar Rinaldi, was also vocal about the deal.

Speaking to Observer Sport back in 2008, he said "Mourinho and Adriano have met and talked, but I can't say how this meeting went.

"'The player is flying back from Rio de Janeiro to Milan next week, as the pre-season starts on Wednesday. I will neither confirm nor deny that he will be exchanged for Lampard."

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Lampard, of course, would go on to become a club legend at Stamford Bridge, while Adriano would leave Inter in 2009 in acrimonious circumstances.

After travelling to Brazil for international duty, Adriano failed to return to Inter and his contract was cancelled.

The striker would go on to have spells at Flamengo, Roma, Corinthians, Atletico Paranaense and Miami United before eventually retiring in 2016.