With almost 650 appearances for the club over 13 years, there is no doubt that Frank Lampard is a Chelsea legend.
And the former England midfielder is never shy about proclaiming his love for the west London club with whom he helped win three Premier League titles between 2001 and 2014.
He was back at it again when, in a Q&A with current club New York City FC, he was asked to name which Premier League clubs he still had a soft spot for. Naturally, the first team out of Lampard’s mouth was Chelsea. However, there were two more teams who make the midfielder’s list – one of which is somewhat surprising.
“I guess the obvious is Chelsea,” Lampard said when replying to one fan’s question.
“The second one might be slightly obvious, it’s Man City. I never envisaged playing for Manchester City at that point in my career, but I have to say the fans, players, staff…took me in so well in that year I was there.”
The two clubs make sense. As Lampard notes, they were the last two teams he played for in the Premier League.
You might think, then, that the final team to earn a spot in the midfielder’s heart would be the one he began his professional career with and played six times more games for than City.
But that’s not the case. Sorry West Ham fans, but the Hammers don’t make it onto the list.
Instead? It is the only other club Lampard spent time with as a youngster.
“One outsider would be Swansea City which is a club where I went on loan to for two months at 17 years of age.
“They were in the old second division at that point, and they’ve come a long way since. And I’ve been delighted to see them come that way.”
Even Lampard’s biggest fans might have forgotten that Swansea City appear on his CV. Considering he only played nine games for the Welsh club during the 1995-96 season, that’s not too surprising.
What is slightly odd, though, is Lampard’s snub of West Ham. He has long-standing ties with the east London club but, perhaps, it is the often hostile reception he received from Hammers fans whenever he played against their team that explains it.