What impact Anthony Gordon pursuit will have on…

What impact Anthony Gordon pursuit will have on Everton transfer interest in Chelsea players

Frank Lampard believes that if Everton can fend off Chelsea's interest in Anthony Gordon it would not prevent the clubs doing further business this summer.

Chelsea submitted an official transfer bid of around £45m for Gordon on Monday having made initial enquiries over the weekend. The approaches have so far been rebuffed by the Blues, who maintain they have little interest in entertaining bids for the 21-year-old.

The efforts to prise the young star from Goodison Park come against the backdrop of a busy transfer window for both clubs - and one in which Everton are thought to have maintained an interest in several Chelsea players.

Frank Lampard is known to be a fan of midfielder Conor Gallagher, whose impressive loan spell at Crystal Palace led to him receiving an England call-up last season. And while Chelsea manager, Lampard gave striker Armando Broja and midfielder Billy Gilmour their first-team debuts. All three remain at Stamford Bridge, with Gallagher and Broja both starting on the bench before coming on against Everton in this season's opener.

As the transfer window enters its final stages, speculation about the short-term future of all three players continues as Chelsea pursue a number of high-profile targets. One of those is Gordon.

Amid that interest, Blues boss Lampard said earlier today he could not assure anyone Gordon would still be at Everton by September 1, explaining: "You can’t ask me to assure anything. That would be naïve for me to assure anything... I don’t want to get into hypotheticals." He did highlight his personal desire to keep hold of Gordon though, adding: "He’s obviously a huge, valuable asset for the club, one that we’ve actually developed ourselves and come through so he’s a link to the fans, link to the club. That’s the story of Anthony Gordon."

Whether Chelsea's pursuit of Gordon, who has trained all week and is expected to be in the squad for Everton's weekend game with Nottingham Forest, will continue remains to be seen.

The reigning FIFA Club World Cup champions have already spent more than £150m this summer, including deals for Raheem Sterling, Kalidou Koulibaly and Marc Cucerella. The signing of teenage central midfielder Carney Chukwuemeka from Aston Villa has shown they are also targeting young, homegrown talent. In the Cucerella deal, his former club Brighton and Hove Albion received promising defender Levi Colwill on loan and there have been suggestions Everton could seek a player on loan as well as a transfer fee in a similar deal for Gordon.

And should the Blues stave off Chelsea interest in Gordon, Lampard believes the relationship between the clubs will still be such that a deal for a player for his former club to come to Merseyside would be possible.

Describing any attempt to attract a Chelsea player to Goodison Park as "not directly relative to the Anthony Gordon story", Lampard said: "I think they are separate conversations. I know the Chelsea players very well. I've got one loan left to use for the UK and it is not just Chelsea we are looking in the area for."

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