This should make for an awkward conversation

Frank Lampard's having a fine season on the pitch. Instrumental for his team in their drunk punch-out with Liverpool on Tuesday, playing well in the EPL, and keeping his club competitive on three two fronts.

Off the field, it's not so good. His recent split from his fiancee Elen Rives has been difficult, although by the looks of this picture above, he's found some rather attractive, though disheveled, counsel to aid the healing process.

She joined Lamps for dinner on Wednesday with his dad and teammates Petr Cech (he dropped his silverware within minutes of sitting down!) and Henrique Hilario (who?) to celebrate their passage to the semi-finals of the Champions League, and had a good night, going on to a nightclub with the brunette for a few night-caps.

However, John Terry may have rocked things a little bit. Who was his dinner accompaniment the other night? Lamps' ex.

Hit it, Daily Mail! To the Gossipcopter!

As the Man of the Match dined at the Italian restaurant, his former love was less than a mile down the road at Japanese eaterie Zuma in Knightsbridge with Terry and his wife Toni. Zuma is Rives's favourite restaurant and the scene was many a romantic dinner date with Lampard.

Despite calling off their engagement two months ago, it appears Spanish beauty Rives, 30, is still very much a part of the Chelsea social circle.The mother-of-two has been friends with Terry's wife Toni for several years and attended the couple's 2007 wedding with Lampard.

I'm sure it's all fine. I mean, my best mate and his wife have dinner with my exes all the time. Totally natural.

The fact that they went to a regular date spot for Lamps and Rives is an especially nice flourish to the tale, and I'm sure they'll have plenty to talk about as they prep for the FA Cup semi-final this weekend.

*sigh*

Slow news days bring out the gossipmonger in me. For shame.

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Lamps is missing 12.5 million pounds

Spartak midfielder Frank Lampard might well be looking at a summer of coupon-cutting, with the news this morning that his fiancee, Elen Rives (the bread of this lady-text-lady sandwich), is breaking up with him.

They never married, but she'll probably leave with half his fortune.

This stuff is never pretty, especially as they have two children caught in the middle, but I'm sure they'll sort something out, for their sake if nothing else.

The problems appear to revolve around some cheating on Lamps' part, although as part of the financial deal, she'll likely be signing confidentiality papers, meaning we'll never hear all the sordid details of his infidelities (clearly not a thought that ever occurred to Danielle Lloyd), which is probably a good thing.

And so, the speculation begins. What went wrong?

Friends of Lampard have put the split down to the trauma brought on by the death of his mother Pat in April.

But the seeds of the break-up appear to have been sown when Miss Rives, 30, twice endured allegations of his infidelity. Friends of the model said she has never forgiven him for his alleged fling with an eastern European brunette during a boys-only jaunt to Las Vegas two years ago. Lampard, 30, was pictured with the woman by a tabloid newspaper and is said to have spent four hours with her in a villa.

'Elen felt humiliated by the whole episode,' said a friend. 'Frank has also never given her an adequate explanation for what he was doing, so it has simply festered. 'He has also not followed through on his promise to make her his wife - but it is the Las Vegas trip which has done all the real damage.'

Lampard had been accused of playing away before. In 2006 a woman claimed she had sex with him at a hotel in Barcelona - Miss Rives's home city.

Stay classy, Frank. Apparently, thanks to Mrs. Jay-Z, you should have put a ring on it if you liked it.

However, Elen is no angel either:

The footballer, meanwhile, is said to have been enraged to discover in a Sunday newspaper that his fiancée had been married before. A friend of Lampard said: 'There was Elen going on to Frank about the importance of being honest with one another when she had been married and never told him.'

(I'm betting the friend is EBJT)

And so, another footballer's relationship ends in tatters, and right after Valentine's Day too. Michael Chopra still had it worse.

So Frank. Today, wake up, get down to training, and figure out how to be more influential in games. Your last excuse just walked out the door.

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