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It's time to wheel out the baby-faced policeman, because I’m starting to feel old!

I just realised it’s more than 20 years since I first saw Frank Lampard play.

And his retirement this week probably is the end of an era as many people are saying – the last of that “golden generation” that should have won England a trophy.

It was during the build-up to Euro ’96 I first saw him play.

I’d actually met him a while before, when I was heading on a night out with Jamie Redknapp , who is Frank’s cousin, and we briefly popped into his house on the way.

He couldn’t come because he had school!

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He was just a kid then, but a short time later, Terry Venables brought him and Rio Ferdinand in to train with the England squad before the European Championships got under way.

And I saw with my own eyes what Jamie had been saying for a while – he had the right temperament and would be brilliant.

It’s becoming a bit of a theme in this column, but the first time I played against Frank, I scored.

At Upton Park in 1997, a bloody good volley too, one of the better ones I scored.

As a selfish striker, I remember that far better than I remember him!

Yet, I do remember him having that belief and ­confidence you need, even in those very first meetings.

It was obvious he was always going to be a top player and Jamie was spot on – his attitude and his ­temperament were perfect.

It reminds me of that video when Harry Redknapp got into a bit of a barney with a fan at a West Ham forum around the same time.

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The fan said Frank – who was 18 at the time and sitting there! – wasn’t good enough and was benefiting from ­favouritism.

Harry, being Harry, didn’t agree. To put it mildly. I’m not going to get drawn into that pointless debate about who was best, him or Steven Gerrard or Paul Scholes.

They were all brilliant and it’s just not a valid comparison.

Everyone has different ­attributes, it’s stupid trying to compare them.

But we knew it about Frank because of his temperament and because he looked right.

(Image: PA)

I know that’s a weird thing to say, but the way he could make the right runs, even at that young age, find the right space and, most importantly, just the way he struck a ball, how clean he hit the ball – that’s what told you.

I’m always asked about what makes a striker and I always say practice.

But there’s an element of timing under pressure too.

Timing to make the right runs, but timing in hitting the ball, getting the right contact and finding the perfect connection, even when you’re not set, or not balanced, or the ball’s not in the perfect position.

Frank did that better than anyone – and he wasn’t even a striker. His record tells you that. It was phenomenal.

To get more than 10 Premier League goals a season for 10 years from midfield. That’s almost a miracle.

Most strikers would kill for that record. And yet Frank topped the assists table too.

There are different jobs in a team and he was given the freedom at Chelsea to do the creative stuff, he was more offensive than defensive, but he had the mentality of a creative midfielder and the finish of a top striker.

And how much do teams pay now to sign goalscoring midfielders? How much did United pay for Pogba?

So, how much would a young Frank Lampard be worth now, a player who ended up the fourth highest Premier League goalscorer of all time, and was second on the all-time list for Premier League assists?

As for that golden ­generation, well, it should have won something.

It would have, too, if England had a manager who wasn’t a 4-4-2 slave.

It seems ridiculous now to say we had Lampard, Gerrard and Scholes – and yet never had a manager who could fit them together and make it work.

Brazil would have made it work. Maybe that’s why they won the World Cup in 2002 and we didn’t.