Lampard: I’m proud of the job I did at Chelsea

Carlo Garganese

• Updated: 13 Jun 2021 19:54 BST
• 4 min read

Frank Lampard says he is proud of the job he did as Chelsea manager, despite being sacked earlier this year.

Lampard was sacked as Chelsea manager at the end of January after a dreadful run of form saw the club fall to ninth place in the Premier League table.

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Having spent €250 million last summer on big-name signings such as Timo Werner, Kai Havertz, Ben Chilwell, Hakim Ziyech and Edouard Mendy, this was deemed unacceptable for a club expected to challenge for the Premier League title.

Tuchel a revelation

Lampard was replaced by Thomas Tuchel, who proved to be a revelation at Stamford Bridge.

Tuchel led the club comfortably into the top four and ended the season by leading Chelsea to a Champions League triumph.

The German also took the Blues to the FA Cup final, although they lost at Wembley to Leicester.

Lampard built the foundations

Asked whether he felt he deserved credit for Chelsea’s success, Lampard told the BBC: “Yeah when you work towards something you want to be there, you want to be the manager and I'm never going to try and lay claim on that. I was part of the early foundation potentially but Thomas did a fantastic job getting them there.

"I will say when I watched the Champions League final, first I'm a Chelsea person, Chelsea fans are happy and the club deserves.

"But secondly to see Mason Mount and Reece James perform at that level, people like Edouard Mendy, Thiago Silva and Ben Chilwell, who came in in my time makes me pretty proud. But again that's a great achievement by them and well managed."

Lampard proud of Chelsea job

Just over four months since he was sacked as Chelsea manager, Lampard is finally able to reflect and he believes he did a good job.

"Well obviously you never want to lose a job, I'm in pretty good company at Chelsea. It happens. It's the brutal reality of football at the top level,” the former midfielder said.

"With reflection, I've had a few months out now, it's been nice to spend some time out of the game. I'm pretty proud at the job I did, it was an honour to manage the club.

"I came in at a tough time with the ban and the loss of Eden Hazard and worked really hard to get into the Champions League and Mason, developing the younger players was a huge deal to me.

"I'm happy. You don't want to lose your job but it's a huge experience for me.

"We had a problem in January and I left my job. I can't go back and keep reflecting on those things in a negative way. I can only look positively going forward."

Lampard was heavily linked with replacing Roy Hodgson as Crystal Palace manager but reportedly rejected the job offer.