Chelsea Transfer News: Frank Lampard Critical of Blues, Andrea Belotti Rumours

Frank Lampard has questioned Chelsea's transfer dealings after the Premier League champions were beaten by Arsenal in the FA Community Shield on Sunday.

Speaking on BT Sport (h/t Ben Grounds of MailOnline), Lampard was critical of Nemanja Matic's sale to Manchester United and said the "whispers" from Stamford Bridge are "negative" at present.

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Lampard said:

"If we're talking about quality, I still think Chelsea have that quality, but when [manager Antonio] Conte was at Juventus he used to do the same thing in the summer. He used to push the club to buy more players to move forward.

"I think he's concerned as he's going to lose [Diego] Costa, they've lost [Nemanja] Matic. They've brought players in but I think he wants more because now they're going to be fighting on the Champions League front.

"It was a strange one [to see Matic go to United]. He was such a huge part of Chelsea's play last year alongside [N'Golo] Kante at the base. He let the wing-backs fly on and he allowed Pedro and Willian freedom to go forward."

Per Liam Prenderville of the Mirror, Matic left Stamford Bridge for £40 million, but he featured heavily for Chelsea as they won the title.

The Serbia international played in 35 games in the Premier League for the Blues last season, according to WhoScored.com, and the onus will lie with Kante to protect the defence this term.

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In other Blues news, Chelsea target Andrea Belotti has been the subject of a huge player-plus-cash deal from AC Milan, but Torino have rejected the bid.

According to La Gazzetta dello Sport (h/t Football Italia), the San Siro giants offered €70 million (£63.2 million) plus M'Baye Niang and Gabriel Paletta for the striker. 

Coral Barry of Metro reported Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal have all been keeping an eye on Belotti's situation in Turin.

Here is the Italian in action:

Lampard's comments will concern Chelsea fans, and the club failed to sufficiently strengthen when they were last champions, leading to the dismissal of manager Jose Mourinho.

Despite holding the title, Chelsea sank like a stone over the 2015-16 season as Leicester City grabbed the league crown.

Blues supporters will not want to see a repeat of such events, but it's clear there's work to do after their defeat at Wembley Stadium.

Chelsea's bench is woefully inadequate, and Conte will struggle to influence his team from the sidelines without genuine depth in his options.

The squad must be strengthened or this campaign will be much harder than last season's run.