Steve Sidwell Heaps Praise on Chelsea and Lampard

What a thoroughly decent bloke Steve Sidwell is.

Whilst some players happily slate previous clubs for one reason or another, Steve Sidwell, who’s time at Chelsea appeared on the outside to be little more than a career break, doesn’t have a bad word to say about his former employers.

In fact, for a player who spent the majority of his time there struggling to even make the bench, he’s very gracious.

Talking of his time at Stamford Bridge, Sidwell said: “A lot of fans tell me I am a Chelsea reject but the year I had there I wouldn’t change for the world. Although it didn’t work out how I wanted it to, I have gained in other areas surrounded by leading players which can go a long way to help my career.”

I’ll be the first to admit I questioned Sidwell on the odd occasion, firstly with rumours flying around he was refusing the leave Chelsea and later, on his £5million move to Aston Villa, when my cynical side wondered whether the ‘kiss and tell’ story was yet to come.

 

But fair play to the man, he held no bad feelings then and his recent comments have continued to heap praise on his old club.

 

Particularly in line for his praise is Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard, of whom Sidwell said: “I knew Frank was a fantastic player but being that close to him for a year, I have to say he is the best professional I have worked with by an absolute mile.

 

"The day I left I spoke to him and said: "It has been a pleasure to be with you this year" as I picked up a lot of stuff off him. I learnt a lot from him like his positional play—where he is around the pitch, his passing, his vision and his fitness.

 

"He was great at timing his runs, which is the most important thing because if you time your run to perfection you have a golden opportunity to score. 

 

"Every day in training you got 110 per cent out of Frank which is impressive.

 

"You look at players on extraordinary amounts of money and some ease off. But even now Frank has signed his new deal he is still putting in extra performances which is what makes him a top player.”

 

So, he was clearly more impressed with his former team-mate last season than I was, although I’ll grudgingly admit Lampard’s ridiculous pay rise does seem to have had an impact on his game so far this season.

 

Anyway, on Scolari’s arrival and Chelsea’s chances this term, Sidwell said: “I trained under Phil Scolari for a week and what I saw of him in that week was mind-blowing. 

 

"The players really took to his training methods and they have got off with a bang and I can’t see them dropping many points.  They lost to Liverpool but I know they are going to win the league this year—I am that certain of that.”

 

Whether he’s right or not remains to be seen, but what a top bloke.