Early Doors has a crazy theory - Frank Lampard is the most underrated player in the Premier League.

Does anyone actually think he is any good, either as a man or as a footballer? Early Doors has always written him off as rubbish, and yet it can't help but notice a big, steaming pile of evidence to the contrary.

That privileged, public school upbringing, the slightly portly frame and the 20 deflected goals a season just don't make him that appealing.

When people say he and Steven Gerrard can't play together for England, nobody talks about dropping Stevie G. Fat Frank is always the 'logical' fall guy.

Even Chelsea fans don't seem to like him that much, despite the fact that he is frighteningly consistent and - before this season - hardly ever missed a game.

Those in the market for a blood-and-guts Englishman gravitate towards John Terry, while Didier Drogba gets the credit for leading the side's attack.

But over the last four-and-a-half years he has weighed in with 60 league goals and 46 assists. No midfielder in the country has been more effective.

Now Chelsea have got in on the act, cussing Lamps by stalling pointlessly over a new contract that they will obviously give him in the end.

Peter Kenyon might be trying to make a point about tightening the purse strings, but in which case why did he recently hand a new five-year deal to Paulo Ferreira?

A former Mourinho pet favourite, Ferreira is now a 29-year-old benchwarmer who has the makings of being the new Winston Bogarde - a man who started two league games in four seasons at Stamford Bridge, politely refusing the club's invitation to leave and preferring to see out his £2 million-a-year contract.

If karma really existed, Lampard would tell Kenyon to stuff off and sign for Barcelona on a Bosman.

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Following his recent goal splurge, Lampard's stock is now back on the rise and, once he bags that lucrative £130,000-a-week deal, he will go back to being massively overhyped.

These things come full circle. Chelsea were mocked for paying £17 million for Claude Makelele, a man who appeared to contribute absolutely nothing.

Then a fit of emperor's-new-clothes appreciation broke out, with pundits drooling over the way he read the game and did all 'the little things'.

As a result, the defensive midfielder was thrust into the unlikely situation of being the sexiest position in football, and men like George Boateng and Gilberto Silva were treated like sporting deities.

Pele was somewhat ahead of the game when he became briefly infatuated with Nicky Butt at the 2002 World Cup, declaring him the player of the tournament.

Order has since been restored - it is now generally acknowledged that anyone with a modicum of self-discipline can operate effectively as a holding midfielder, and that Cristiano Ronaldo - not Owen Hargreaves - is the man who makes Manchester United tick.