Abby Brammell

By Rob Draper

Mad for it: New Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho wants to be reunited with Frank Lampard in Spain


Chelsea face a fight to keep their Double-winning team together this week as former manager Jose Mourinho intensifies his efforts to recruit Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole for Real Madrid.

Mourinho's agent Jorge Mendes, who is negotiating transfers for the Spanish club, is planning to visit London in a bid to persuade Chelsea to allow the England pair to leave.

Chelsea will do their utmost to retain Lampard and Cole, who signed four-year contracts in 2008 and 2009 respectively.

Real Madrid will raise the possibility of a player-exchange, with Brazil superstar Kaka, who worked with Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti at AC Milan, and Argentina striker Gonzalo Higuain in the frame.

Ancelotti is consulting his bosses over the make-up of his team for next season and while he is understood to be considering changes to his backroom staff, with Ray Wilkins' future as assistant coach under review, he would be reluctant to lose two such crucial players.


Blue is the colour: Ashley Cole celebrates earlier this month


Mourinho, who left Chelsea in 2007, is to be installed as Real Madrid manager tomorrow following last Saturday's triumph in the Champions League with Inter Milan.

He will want a number of his former players around him at what promises to be his most testing role to date in transforming Real after two years without a trophy.

He is already negotiating to take Inter Milan right-back Maicon to the club but wants to add a left-back and a midfielder. Cole is understood to be ready to consider a move after his pop star wife Cheryl filed for divorce last week, although Real may baulk at improving his wages of £120,000 a week and are tracking Lazio's Aleksander Kolovov as a contingency.

Lampard would find it difficult to resist the lure of rejoining former mentor Mourinho.

However, neither Ancelotti nor Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich would want to lose such an iconic player, who signed his current four-year deal when Mourinho attempted to recruit him for Inter Milan.

Lampard is 32 next month and Mourinho's interest represents his final chance to make the move abroad which he has always said he would like to experience before his career ends.


source :dailymail