In his initial tenure as Blues manager, Lampard made an unsuccessful attempt to lure the Norwegian hitman to west London.
Erling Haaland was a player that Frank Lampard admitted he sought to bring to Chelsea during his first tenure as manager at Stamford Bridge.
When the Manchester City striker was representing RB Salzburg in Austria in a preseason friendly in 2019, he faced Lampard's group.
Before deciding to join Borussia Dortmund the following summer, he scored 28 goals in 22 games that season, but Lampard said that during his 18-month tenure as manager between 2019 and 2021, he tried to bring him to west London instead.
Lampard was ultimately let down by the competition for the services of the Norway international and the fact that not everyone at Chelsea thought making a move for Haaland would have been the appropriate choice.
With the two clubs meeting at the Etihad on Sunday as City looks for the victory they need to clinch the title, his 36 Premier League goals for title-chasing City this season mean he has scored as many times in the league as the entire Chelsea squad.
Chelsea, on the other hand, is still in the bottom part of the table and hasn't made much progress in their current goal-scoring woes this season.
I tried to recruit him to Chelsea the first time I was here, so I have a ton of respect for him as a player, stated Lampard. "I really wanted to bring him here, but it was plainly not possible. We competed against him in a Salzburg preseason game, and his level at that moment was quite obvious.
"Credit to him, I love seeing players of that caliber, I love seeing players of that character and drive to perform at the highest level, which he's demonstrated. Players of that caliber can make anything happen at any time, so having a plan and a concept for how to deal with him is definitely necessary.
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