Antonio Rudiger leaving Chelsea for Real Madrid is Frank Lampard's fault, says Paul Merson

 In his latest column, Paul Merson explains why Antonio Rudiger's exit from Chelsea is actually Frank Lampard's fault.

Losing Rudiger to Real Madrid is going to break Chelsea's heart - but his mind was made up 18 months ago with the way he was treated by Lampard.

He got completely binned out the team by Lampard and I think that left a lasting effect on Rudiger. That's when he decided that he's not signing a new contract.

Years ago, if Real Madrid and Barcelona came calling then you went. I don't see that anymore. Chelsea are as good as Real Madrid, you can see that in the Champions League quarter-final. The Blues had a bad 45 minutes but apart from that, they were a far superior team to Real Madrid.

Now Chelsea are letting a £70m-80m defender go on a free transfer and they're going to bring someone in for £70m who will be nowhere as good as Rudiger.

They're going to have to strengthen in defence as Rudiger and Andreas Christensen are going to leave. I like Trevoh Chalobah but they play three at the back so they'll need to bring in another defender.

Even though Kai Havertz is Chelsea's best player with Mason Mount, and someone they can build a team around, they still need a forward.

I'm not saying it won't work with Romelu Lukaku but he needs to get it together and make his mind up that he's staying.

In my opinion, his agent would never say something like what he said this week about discussing his future this summer if he hasn't been told something by Lukaku. If I had an agent and he started saying something that I never said to him, I'd be getting rid of him tomorrow morning. For me, it's an easy way for Lukaku to get something out there without him saying it himself.

He wants to be at a great club and I don't see why he can't go on and score a load of goals. But he can't have a season like he did this season for £100m.