Chelsea receive huge boost as Frank Lampard confirms Antonio Rudiger’s inclusion ahead of Lille clash, exempts two stars from squad

Chelsea boss Frank Lampard has included Antonio Rudiger in the Blues squad for the Champions League clash with Lille tomorrow.

The London club need a win to ensure a place in the knockout stages of the competition, although a draw may be good enough for them to progress, depending on other results.

And the Chelsea head coach has confirmed that the Blues have been boosted by the return from injury of Rudiger, who has not featured since the 5-2 win against Wolves at Molineux back in September.

Football.london report the Germany international was out training with the team today (Monday) ahead of tomorrow’s game in west London, and Lampard confirmed he was in contention to feature, although he said Fikayo Tomori and Olivier Giroud will not be involved against Lille.

“He [Rudiger] is in the squad, so he has a chance. It is good to have him back,” Lampard said at his pre-match press conference . “He is training really well and got his fitness work done. His injury is healed.

“[Fikayo] Tomori is out, he has a small, tiny strain around his hip area. It has bothered him for a little bit so we have taken him out for a couple of days. Olivier [Giroud] is still out as well.”

Lampard added that it was a big boost to have Rudiger available again, although he was wary of putting too much pressure on the German, after a long injury lay-off.

“[It is] Potentially difficult,” he said. “Our guard against that was to give him a lot of work. Created things behind the scenes in training that seem like matches and pure runniing.

“He has come through that and he looks fit and ready to go, I know he is hungry. In terms of people building him up, maybe rightly so.

“He is a good defender, you overlook the fact that people talk about youth, transfer bans but we had five big players injured for a period of time.

“Carrying that on, Rudi is just back and Ruben is still out, you miss those individuals. And then see what he can add to us now.”

Photo Credit: Twitter @chelseafc.com

Jose Mourinho wants reunion with former Manchester United utility player at Tottenham in January

Reports in Belgium and England claim that Jose Mourinho is attempting to sign Marouane Fellaini for Tottenham.

Mourinho managed Fellaini during their time together at Manchester United before Ole Gunnar Solskjaer decided to sell the midfielder earlier this year.

But Belgian newspaper La Derniere Heure now reports that Mourinho has made the signing of Fellaini his ‘priority objective’ at Spurs.

The report claims that Mourinho has even contacted Fellaini ahead of a potential move in the January transfer window.

Fellaini is currently playing for Shandong Luneng in the Chinese Super League and the 32-year-old has scored seven goals and provided four assists in 22 league appearances for the club.

Fellaini’s current contract with Shandong runs until December 2021 with an option of an additional year.

But the Chinese Super League season has now ended and Fellaini will not be in action until March.

The Metro report that during their time together at United, Mourinho was a huge advocate of Fellaini’s versatility and even described the Belgian as ‘fundamental’ after a 2-0 win over Burnley last season.

“Everybody knows Marouane is not Maradona but everyone knows what Marouane is and what he can give,” Mourinho said last year.

Gennaro Gattuso set to replace Carlo Ancelloti at Napoli as AC Milan legend meets Aurelio De Laurentiis today

There are reports in Italy that Napoli will appoint former Milan boss Gennaro Gattuso as early as this week.

CalcioNapoli24 reporter Ciro Venerato claims Gattuso “will be the new Napoli coach from Wednesday”, replacing the beleaguered Carlo Ancelotti.

Venerato explains how super-agent Jorge Mendes has been working as an intermediary to negotiate a deal between the coach and club President Aurelio De Laurentiis, report Football Italia.

Tuttosport claim that Gattuso is scheduled to meet with the Partenopei President in the Italian capital today.

Napoli are seventh after 15 games, on 21 points, and Ancelotti is currently overseeing a run of nine games without a win.

Gattuso lost his job after steering Milan to fifth place in Serie A last season and the newspaper also claims that the former Rossonero could also get an offer from Fiorentina and Chinese Guagnzhou Evergrande.

As it stands, the 41-year-old looks like taking over the reins regardless of what happens against Genk tomorrow.

Napoli need to beat the Belgian side to be sure of their place in the Champions League last 16 and a multi-million Euro windfall.

Chelsea loanee Tiemoue Bakayoko forgets his own jersey number (Watch Video here)

Tiemoue Bakayoko was left confused after he thought he was being subbed off in Monaco’s 3-0 win over Amiens at the weekend.

The 25-year-old, who is on loan at the Ligue 1 club from the Blues, forgot his own shirt number during the clash on Saturday.

The fourth official held up No 14 to leave the field of play, which was the number Bakayoko used to wear for Monaco before he made the switch to Stamford Bridge.

Monaco’s official Twitter account uploaded the clip of the incident with the caption: ‘When you carried the No 14 a little too long in your career [sic].’

The video shows Bakayoko, who wears the No 6 on the back of his shirt, heading towards the side of the pitch while applauding.

The midfielder did find the funny side of his error once he realised he no longer wears No 14, report Sportsmail.

Bakayoko headed back into his position on the pitch and the current owner of No 14 Keita Balde was replaced.

Bakayoko returned to his former club Monaco in August and the French outfit have the option to sign him permanently in the summer.

Serie A legend puts pressure on Maurizio Sarri, says “we have been waiting for four months now”

Juventus boss Maurizio Sarri has come under intense pressure following the Old Lady’s recent poor results expecially last Saturday’s loss to Lazio.

Antonio Cassano said “we have been waiting four months” for Maurizio Sarri’s Juventus to take shape and claimed Leo Bonucci can’t help Matthijs de Ligt.

The Bianconeri lost 3-1 to Lazio on Saturday and Cassano said they can’t still be “waiting” for the new coach to find his feet at the Allianz Stadium.

Inter Milan took over the Serie A top spot from the Turin club after dropping points at home against Sassuolo.

“Everyone keeps saying that we need to be patient with Sarri, but we have been waiting for four months now,” Cassano told Tiki Taka. “As soon as they faced a team as strong as Lazio, he lost.”

Juventus was dealt a big blow in the first game of the season, when Giorgio Chiellini got injured, and Cassano claimed that the Italy international is sorely missed in the defence, report Football Italia.

“Chiellini is missing. He is missing a lot. He is a leader both on and off the pitch, he added. “Giorgio has a great personality; he would have helped [Matthijs] de Ligt.

“Poor one, he is in great difficulty and [Leonardo] Bonucci isn’t capable of helping him how he should be.”

Photo Credit: sempreinter.com