Juventus Midfielder: I Had Agreement to Join Chelsea

Juventus midfielder Andrea Pirlo has revealed that he had reached an agreement to join Premier League side Chelsea, while with his former employers AC Milan. However, the deal did not take any shape as Milan's president Silvio Berlusconi intervened in order to stop the Italian international make a switch to Stamford Bridge.

Pirlo also admitted he was close to joining Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona in 2006 and 2011 respectively. Former England manager Fabio Capello wanted the player at Santiago Bernabeu while Pep Guardiola convinced him to make a switch to Camp Nou.

"I had already reached an agreement with Chelsea, then after Berlusconi intervened and I stayed at Milan. I was also very close with Capello at Real Madrid and nearly joined them in 2006. Guardiola then convinced me to join Barcelona in 2011, but Berlusconi stepped in again," Pirlo revealed in his autobiography.

The 33-year-old finally joined Juventus in the summer of 2011 and is on the verge of winning his second consecutive Serie A medal with Antonio Conte's side. Pirlo claims he has no regrets about making a move to Juventus as he was looking for a new challenge in his career.

"Surely it was the best decision of my career to sign for Juventus. Do I regret leaving Milan? I decided I needed a change. I needed to find new ideas and that was the best thing for both parties," he added.

Lampard Delighted With Swansea Win

Meanwhile, Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard has expressed his delight after winning the weekend tie 2-0 over Swansea City. The England international came in as an early substitute for injured Ramires and scored his side's second goal from the spot kick.

"Our attitude before the game was very determined, we were a little bit slow at the start of the game, but there was a feeling within the squad that we needed to win, especially with the games we have coming up, and we did the job," Lampard told the club website.

"We played a bit higher up the pitch, had a bit more energy about us and started winning the ball back from Swansea. We stopped them playing out from the back casually, got on top of them and the goals came," he said.