Paul Clement has revealed he tried to sign Frank Lampard – 21 years after the former England man spent time at Swansea City.
The Swans coach has said he approached Lampard – who announced his retirement on Thursday morning at the age of 38 – soon after he took over the Liberty Stadium at the start of January.
It would have been a re-union between the pair as Clement coached Lampard when he was assistant manager at Chelsea under Carlo Ancelotti.
“I would have loved to have him here so I would be lying if I said I did not try, but he was moving towards decision he has made today,” said Clement.
“We had a chat and he appreciated I had called because of our relationship. I am not saying it was close – it did not go very far – but it would have been nice. His ability as a player we know about but he is a good leader, character and professional but we got in Tom Carroll and I am very happy with him.
“But I hope Frank continues in the game of football. He will think about it over next weeks and months but I would like to congratulate him on a wonderful career.
“He was a fantastic player with an amazing career. I had the pleasure to work with him for two-and-a-half seasons at Chelsea and I have kept in contact with him and we have exchanged messages.
“He is one of the outstanding goalscoring midfielders European football has ever seen – at his peak he was scoring 20 goals a season which many strikers would be proud of. He was so professional, dedicated and hard-working. Every day in training he worked hard to improve and it is no surprise to me that he achieved so much success at club and international level.”
As a teenager, Lampard had a loan spell at Swansea City from West Ham United, making nine appearances and scoring one goal in 1995-96.
Clement added: “I spoke to him and he said he really enjoyed his time here. He spoke very fondly of the club and people here and that it was part of his education before going on to have such a great player.”
Swansea head to Manchester City on Sunday buoyed by winning back-to-back Premier League games for the first time this season.
Clement’s side followed up their shock 3-2 win at Liverpool by beating Southampton 2-1 at home on Tuesday night to stay two points above the relegation zone.
Gylfi Sigurdsson scored the winner in both games to underline his importance to Swansea.
The Icelandic playmaker now has seven goals and seven assists this season – being involved in exactly half of Swansea’s 28 league goals.
Sigurdsson has been linked with wealthy Chinese clubs and the transfer window in China remains open until February 28.
But Clement said he was unaware of any interest in the 27-year-old and insists Sigurdsson is committed to Swansea’s survival bid.
