03 October 2023 , 13:55
1047
0
Frank Lampard has admitted he was forced to integrate players Chelsea not on his transfer wishlist before he was sacked in his first spell as manager.
The 45-year-old replaced Maurizio Sarri at the helm in July 2019 after one season in charge at Derby, where he guided the Rams to the Championship play-off final. But, despite losing against Aston Villa at Wembley and his lack of experience in management, Chelsea thought he was the right man for the job.
Upon joining the club, Chelsea were heading into a two-window transfer ban, which was due to end in the summer of 2020. This meant Lampard was unable to sign players for his first season in the dugout, with academy players handed a chance to impress in the first-team.
The likes of Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham and Fikayo Tomori impressed as the Blues finished inside the top four in Lampard's debut campaign. But, at the end of the 2019/20 season, Chelsea spent over £200million on new players, with Kai Havertz, Timo Werner, Ben Chilwell and Hakim Ziyech the biggest-money arrivals.
Chelsea started the season well and were on an impressive unbeaten run, before a mini-blip saw Lampard lose his job at the turn of the year. Nearly three years on from his sacking, Lampard has opened up on his relationship with Roman Abramovich and Marina Granovskaia, after an influx of players were signed.
Chelsea complete record-breaking Enzo Fernandez transfer after deadline day rush
He said on Sky Sports' Monday Night Football: "If I'm honest, my situation is to make sure that certain players I would be very keen to bring in. And we did collaborate. We know work at the time with Marina, obviously Roman Abramovich was not present. He knew he was the overseeing power and I quite appreciated that. I never heard from him.
"It was never a problem for me, but there were certain players that were more brought in as a club thing and you have to try and integrate them. That's how I saw it.
Frank Lampard has had two spells as manager at Chelsea (Getty Images)"It certainly gave me from the system that we've been playing in year one, it definitely gave me those things which were quite but now I think that was the early part of the second season. We then got into a groove, we were playing really well and we went up from about 17 unbeaten up until December and I felt like we were sort of overcoming some of those early tweaks.
"The problem came for me, I think probably mid-December we went to Everton and lost and we went to Wolves three or four days later and lost. And whether I should have been surprised or not, I was surprised about how quickly the feeling turned around in terms of how secure I felt with the club."
Lampard then took almost a year out of the game before returning as Everton's new manager in January 2022. He kept the Toffees in the Premier League, but lasted less than 12 months in the job before being replaced by Sean Dyche. It didn't take Lampard long to find another role, meanwhile, as he was appointed as Chelsea's interim manager until the end of the 2022/23 season.
But Lampard struggled during his second spell at Stamford Bridge, winning one from 11 matches. Towards the end of the campaign, Mauricio Pochettino was being linked with the vacant permanent role. With issues off the pitch, Lampard was quizzed about whether Pochettino had the toughest task back in May.
He said: "I don’t know. It’s a good headline but I don’t know, it remains to be seen. I can’t jump into the future. I think it is a fantastic job because it is the Chelsea job and when I took it the first time I came, I probably got the job because a lot of top managers didn’t want the job. I know that for a fact,” he added. “That was a big part of it.".
"But I enjoyed the process and I enjoyed coming in and I wish the new manager well," Lampard added. "I don’t know. It’s his problem."