Mour problems for Chelsea boss Avram as Jose plans £35m summer raid for Lampard and Drogba

13 April 2012

Former Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho is planning to raid Stamford Bridge for Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba this summer.

The 'Special One' has agreed to take the reins at Inter Milan, according to The Sun, and is lining up a £35million double swoop for the Blues' duo.

Mourinho reportedly struck a deal with Inter president Massimo Moratti at the weekend and will take over from Roberto Mancini after the Serie A season climax.

Scroll down for more

Top Drog: Chelsea striker Didier Drogba (left) joins Frank Lampard (centre) and Michael Ballack in celebration

The Italian champions have not made an official announcement.

But Mourinho has told friends that he is going back into management and has begun drawing up a list of targets - with his former charges right at the top.

That means more bad news for under-pressure Chelsea boss Avram Grant, ahead of tomorrow's Champions League semi-final first leg at Liverpool, as he could lose two of his most influential stars — and his job — this summer.

Midfielder Lampard, 29, enjoys a close relationship with Mourinho after they worked together for three years.

Former Blue: Jose Mourinho

Mourinho described him as 'the best professional I have ever worked with' when the Portuguese boss left Chelsea last September.

Lampard is unsettled under Grant and the pair clashed ahead of Blues' Carling Cup Final defeat to Tottenham in February.

Contract talks have dragged on and the England midfielder, whose fiancee Elen Rives is Spanish, has always been keen to play abroad.

Mourinho and Lampard have kept in touch and both would be eager to renew their working relationship at one of Europe's top clubs.

But Lamps' mum Pat is seriously ill in hospital after being struck down with pneumonia last week and he has put his career on hold until she is better.

Mourinho signed Drogba for a club-record �24m from Marseille in July 2004 — and the Ivory Coast striker's career was transformed.

When the Special One, 45, left Chelsea last autumn, the crestfallen Ivory Coast hitman compared it to 'losing a father'.

He later made a bombshell announcement that he plans to quit Chelsea at the end of this season. Grant has been criticised for not getting the best out of Drogba and the striker, 30, has scored only four goals for his club since Christmas.

Inter have been in talks with Mourinho since Mancini announced he was quitting in the wake of their Champions League exit against Liverpool in February.

This was despite having four years left on his contract at the San Siro.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in