Mourinho gives up on Lampard for Portsmouth's Muntari
Inter’s move for the Ghanaian international suggests manager Jose Mourinho has given up on being reunited with the Englishman, for the time being at least.
Muntari, 23, who only joined the south coast side in May last year for £7m for another Serie A side, Udinese, is expected to sign a four-year contract with the Italian champions.
The midfielder scored five goals in an impressive debut season in England, and his departure will be a blow to Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp, who earlier this week denied that Muntari was about to leave Fratton Park.
Redknapp said: "I don’t want to sell him. He is one of my best players and is a terrific young talent."
Portsmouth have had a busy year in the transfer market, signing Lassana Diarra and Jermain Defoe in January and adding to that this summer with an £11 million deal with Liverpool for Peter Crouch as well as the loan signing of young striker Ben Sahar from Chelsea.
Redknapp led Portsmouth to a superb FA Cup triumph last season and an 8th place finish in the Premier League. On their way to the FA Cup Final, Muntari scored the vital penalty that beat Manchester United in the quarter-finals. He also scored two memorable goals in a league victory away to Aston Villa in December.
Mourinho has been targeting a central midfielder since he joined Inter last month and has been heavily linked with a move for England international Lampard, who played under the Portuguese manager at Chelsea.
However, Chelsea have repeatedly said he is not for sale and earlier this week Mourinho admitted that any deal was more likely to be completed next summer, when the 30-year-old’s contract expires.
Mourinho had said: "For Lampard, it will be easier to play with Chelsea until the end of his contract rather than break it now, all of a sudden.
"It seems to me difficult for him to be able to come here now, it’s easier that he comes next season."
Lampard played for Chelsea yesterday in a pre-season friendly in China against Guangzhou Pharmaceutical, scoring in front of new manager Luiz Felipe Scolari.
Labels: Chelsea, Inter Milão, José Mourinho, Lampard, Scolari, Sulley Muntari
This entry was posted
on Thursday, July 24, 2008 at 9:08 AM.
