Frank Lampard, the manager of Everton, has warned Chelsea that the Toffees value midfielder Anthony Gordon highly.
Chelsea have already failed with two bids for Gordon, the most recent of which was around £45 million, with Everton demanding more than £50 million for their 21-year-old academy graduate, named Everton’s Young Player of the Year last season.
In his pre-match press conference before Saturday’s match against Nottingham Forest, Lampard tried to steer clear of all the rumours, but he made it clear that Everton is willing to demand a significant amount of money to part ways with Gordon.
“Anthony Gordon is an Everton player isn’t he? We can talk about likely or hypothetical questions or what may be, but he’s an Everton player,” Lampard said.
“Anthony is our player and we are not looking in a situation of where can we go in this deal,” he said. “We know his value because you see values of players moving that haven’t achieved what Anthony has. I want to think about what Anthony can do to improve the team.
“He has a huge value to the team. We saw that in his progress last season when I got here, and felt that on the pitch. He is a massive player in the squad and a hugely valuable asset for the club, one we have developed ourselves and brought through and who has a link to the fans, a link to the club. That’s the story of Anthony Gordon.
“He’s in the squad for tomorrow, any chats I’ve had with him will remain private, I’m not going to sit here and talk about those. As any player should have to do, they have to get on with their game, their own form, train well, prepare well, play well, he’s our player, it’s as simple as that.”
Lampard declined to make any promises when asked if he could guarantee Gordon would stay at the club past the summer.
“You can’t ask me to assure anything, it’ll be naive of me to assure anything,” he said. “I can’t assure I’ll be here by the end of the window! I don’t want to get into hypothetical.”
