Chelsea manager Frank Lampard has played down rumours of an £80million transfer move for Wilfried Zaha which would see Giroud move to Crystal Palace as part of the deal.
The west London side are ready to be active when the January window opens having been banned from signing any player in the summer – though they successfully appealed that ruling and are free to make signings this month.
Reports emerged suggesting Lampard wants to bring in a new attacker and Zaha is reportedly on Chelsea’s wishlist, with Giroud a potential makeweight.
However, Lampard – who watched his team draw 1-1 with Brighton on New Year’s Day – has distanced himself from such deal and does not want to talk about individual targets.
‘I wouldn’t talk about Zaha and the idea of that deal is something I’ve never even considered,’ said Frank Lampard when asked directly about a possible deal.
Probed on whether Zaha is a player he likes, Lampard continued: ‘No, as I say, I won’t talk about Zaha because he’s not a player of ours.
‘If we have to do business we’ll do it in the way that we see fit to try and make us better.
‘And that’s behind closed doors as opposed to just announcing who we might want to bring in.’
After a brilliant win over the gunners at the Emirates just a few days ago, Chelsea gave a poor display against Brighton, conceding late on, and Lampard concedes his team have to be more clinical.
Lampard continued: ‘You have to deal with it in games, it’s part of the process. You can accuse for a lack of fight and urgency but today was a lack of quality on the ball. We just decided to not keep doing the simple things, not taking opportunities to score.’
