LAMPARD BLAMES FORWARD THINKING

Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard has said that one of the main reasons for the failure of Andre Villas-Boas at Chelsea was the fact that he concentrated more on the future with a disregard for the present.

Frank Lampard had a strained relationship with the ex-Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas. Despite being the first team player for Chelsea over the last decade, Lampard was dropped without any explanation by Andre Villas-Boas, although Lampard proved him wrong over this issue many times over.

Finally, Villas-Boas left the club recently after a string of poor results left them in the fifth position with a real fight to qualify for the Champions League next season.

Players like Drogba and Lampard were extremely crucial in helping Chelsea get past the daunting task of Napoli in the last 16 of the Champions league. Speaking after the win, Lampard said that he is extremely thankful for the work done by Andre Villas-Boas, but the Portuguese did not see the merits within the current crop of players.

Villas-Boas was extremely keen on rebuilding the team in such a way that he lost sight of the present problems. Villas-Boas is the seventh manager for Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich in eight seasons.

"His plan was long term. But somewhere in the middle of that, the present didn't go so well – and that's where the problems came. To be fair to AVB, that was part of the remit and I get that we need to move on and change. But you can't lose sight of the present. I wasn't disrespectful. I just told him I thought I should be playing," Lampard said in a recent interview.

Lampard also revealed that Villas-Boas got in touch with him after getting the sack and said that he was extremely professional. Frank is now hopeful that he can regain his form to be part of the England team this summer (the best Euro 2012 betting odds are 4/1 on England to win it outright).