Frank Lampard's agent met with representatives of Juventus as the Italian side apparently entered the race to sign the Chelsea midfielder.

Steve Kutner was pictured with Juve's vice-president Roberto Bettega, and also reportedly met with the Serie A club's general manager Alessio Secco.

But Kutner has denied the meetings were about Lampard, whose future is up in the air after talks over a new contract at Stamford Bridge stalled.

He said: "Roberto and I have been good friends since Juve tried to sign Paul Ince before he went to Inter.

"He has come over to London to attend a series of meetings I have arranged with Premiership clubs regarding potential transfer deals and collaborations. There is no other agenda."

There has been much speculation about Lampard's future in recent weeks as under Fifa rules the England midfielder can buy out the remaining two years of his contract at Chelsea in the summer, paving the way for a cut-price move.

And despite Kutner's denial the meetings he has held have sparked a fresh round of  reports that Lampard's future lies away from Stamford Bridge.

Real Madrid and Barcelona have both been linked with 28-year-old in recent days and Juve, who tried to sign him three years ago, appear to have now entered the fray.

Meanwhile Blues boss Jose Mourinho has admitted there were "tensions" at the club when he was unable to bolster his squad in the January transfer window.

At the time, Mourinho repeatedly voiced his frustration at being unable to recruit despite injury problems that had shorn him of the likes of captain John Terry, goalkeeper Petr Cech and midfielder Joe Cole.

It was thought that the failure to move into the transfer market was down to a growing rift between Mourinho and owner Roman Abramovich, and the Portuguese has now spoken out in an attempt to provide clarity to the issue.

In an interview in Portuguese daily Correio de Manha, Mourinho said: "I admit that the period between the end of December and the whole month of January may have caused some tensions.

"The team was on the limits, I was forced into constant adaptations, although we were involved in every competition.

"There were problems to resolve and, given the owner's money, we had hoped they would be resolved, but this did not happen.

"The reasons given for the club not signing players were alleged differences with Abramovich, that he had stopped going to games, but no-one worried about finding out why.

"It was Christmas, he has family, and there could have been so many reasons, but people interpreted it as they wanted."

Despite rumours to the contrary, Mourinho also claimed he had a "very good personal relationship" with Frank Arnesen, who was brought in to oversee the development of Chelsea's scouting system.

But he added: "We have, here and there, our differences but each of us do our jobs separately."