Lampard says he accepted the Chelsea job offer “with his head”, denying the Italian international’s claim that the opportunity had come too early for him.
The legendary midfielder was drafted in to replace Maurizio Sarri in the summer of 2019, and he impressed the board after helping Chelsea to a top four finish and the final of the FA Cup, where the Blues were beaten by Arsenal.
Lampard was backed financially to usher the new era at Stamford Bridge, as he signed the likes of Ben Chilwell, Kai Havertz, Timo Werner, Hakim Ziyech and Edouard Mendy.
The 42-year-old was relieved of his Chelsea duties in January after a series of poor results, and failure to get the best out of the players.
Weeks after Lampard’s dismissal, Jorginho claimed that the Englishman “skipped some steps necessary for learning” before making the jump from Derby County to Chelsea.
In an exclusive interview with The Telegraph, Lampard has responded to the former Napoli man’s claim.
“It’s always going to be a fact as a manager when you leave a club, there will be some players who did not play so much and they might have a feeling or a judgement on how you work and they can make statements,” he said.
“For me, I have to expect that as much as I expect the good statements from players who are really positive about how you work. I’ve got no big issue with that.
“I’ve seen some quotes saying that Frank Lampard took this job with his heart. I absolutely didn’t. I don’t make any professional decisions with my heart.
“Maybe I’m the absolute opposite of that. I’ll go over them a hundred times in my head, but I certainly didn’t with my heart. I took it with a pragmatic view of: ‘what’s the situation? OK, this is Chelsea, I’m going from Derby to Chelsea.’ Not many managers would turn that down head or heart, let’s get it right.”
