Lampard tells Pochettino his first Chelsea task after taking Blues job
Frank Lampard has identified Mauricio Pochettino’s first task at Chelsea - to repair the “spirit and togetherness”.
The ex Stamford Bridge boss has cited a bloated squad and a season that petered out into nothing as major drags on motivation around the club in the past year.
Lampard, 45, inherited the hot seat as interim boss after the sacking of Graham Potter in April but failed to make an impact, and claims that came down to an attitude that was in place even before he arrived.
Pochettino has been appointed permanent head coach and is at the start of a major squad trim and rebuild. Lampard spoke to Dragons Den star Steven Bartlett on The Diary of a CEO podcast, and says he knew from training levels that the club was in trouble despite a £660m squad.
He said: “When I got there I could see the team spirit and the togetherness was not there. It was nothing bad, but you have to train elite to be elite.
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Mauricio Pochettino is the new Chelsea manager (Getty Images)“The minute we didn't get through against Real, you're in that end of season zone that is not the norm at Chelsea. At Chelsea, we should be playing for something. We played for not so much, another reason why motivation came down.”
Chelsea’s first team squad last season, following their new owner’s spending spree, had more than 30 players to keep happy, including midfielder Enzo Fernandez, who cost £106m, and £88.5m winger Mykhaylo Mudryk.
He continued: “The biggest thing about the standards thing was the size of the squad and the motivation of players that you're not going to play. In football, that's a challenge with 20 players, which is a modern squad.
Enzo Fernandez became Chelsea's record signing in January (Getty Images)“But Chelsea's got very big, to the point that I can say, and I'm not criticising that player for dropping standards but I want to try and get something out of him.
“I would try but when you kind of look at it you go, 'Yeah but he's had this for a long time where he's not playing so he's not being competitive with that player who is playing, so that player is pretty comfortable too because he's not pushing him.’
“I could see in training the level wasn't enough. It wasn't enough to get a result at Brentford at home or whatever, let alone Real Madrid. When I came in, I noticed very quickly that some players were thinking the season was going to peter out and what the future would look like for them.
Frank Lampard won one of his 11 matches in Interim charge (Getty Images)'If I'm a player that's not been playing for seven months and think I might be leaving in four weeks' time, I'm probably going to struggle to motivate that player. I haven't got a magic wand to motivate them.
'When you have international players in a big number, you're telling internationals they have to stay at home. It's not easy.”
Lampard spared Chelsea’s new owner Todd Boehly from criticism, despite a campaign that had four managers and a bottom half finish.
Lampard added: “Their intentions are certainly good. I know that. I had a good relationship with them Their intentions to do a good job are amazing, they want to take the club and be the best. They have great intentions.
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"They've spent the money because they want to do well. If they're going to address the situation, that is their strategy going forward, but I do think you will see players like Fernandez, Mudryk and Noni Madueke develop and they're going to be big players for the club.'
Lampard’s woeful record in that spell, one win in 11 games and eight defeats, may have damaged his stock as he searches for a new job. But he added: “I don't have a regret about doing it. If people want to criticise or have a view over my six or seven weeks work, I've got no problem with that.
"It wasn't my most favourite experience in my career but it was an experience and I have learnt from it.”
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