Lampard poser as Inter Milan open with £6.5m bid for Chelsea midfielder

Frank Lampard trained alone on his first day back at Chelsea's Cobham headquarters yesterday, as he faced up to the most heart-rending decision of his football career.

Unlike his team-mates, Lampard - of his own volition - spent the afternoon jogging round an outlying training pitch pondering whether to rejoin his former manager Jose Mourinho at Inter Milan.

Lampard was described by a source close to him as being 60/40 in favour of a move to the San Siro at the weekend as the Italian side were busy launching a £6.5million opening gambit - although Chelsea denied receiving a faxed offer.

Chelsea boss Luiz Felipe Scolari is understood to be keen for Lampard to stay on, although the impasse over his contract negotiations with Chelsea is yet to be resolved.

As Sportsmail revealed on Saturday, Lampard is holding out for a five-year deal worth £150,000-a-week while Chelsea have so far put an offer of one year and £10,000-a-week less on the table. That compares with the tax-free £115,000-a-week, four-year deal Inter are reportedly ready to offer.

But Lampard feels an enormous debt of gratitude to Chelsea for the support they offered following the passing of his mother less than three months ago.

Matters are likely to reach a conclusion shortly with Inter understood to be ready to go as high as £8m for Lampard, who has one year remaining on his £120,000-a-week contract. Scolari is believed to be ready to let Didier Drogba go, with AC Milan technical director Leonardo confirming he is still a target for the Italians.

But as with their other goal-scoring target, Arsenal's Emmanuel Adebayor, Milan are unwilling to meet the selling club's valuation of upwards of £25m for the 30-year-old Ivory Coast striker who remains on holiday after international commitments earlier this summer.

Meanwhile, Claude Makelele is still weighing up a two-year contract offer from Paris Saint- Germain.