Frank Lampard has hit back at Jorginho’s criticism of his Chelsea tenure after the Italian midfielder claimed he wasn’t ready to take on the job.
The 42-year-old started his managerial career at Derby County and, after just a one season in The Championship, he was hired by Chelsea to take over from Maurizio Sarri.
Lampard’s return to Stamford Bridge was considered a huge success after he secured Champions League qualification, despite working under a transfer ban at the club.
The former England midfielder was then allowed to spend more than £200m last summer but after surrendering a 17-game unbeaten run, things began to unravel before he was eventually sacked in January.
Almost every player of Chelsea’s first team spoke positively about Lampard’s impact after his sudden exit, but Jorginho, who played a limited role under his former manager, broke ranks last month and said he had been over-promoted.
‘Look, I’ll be really sincere here on Lampard,’ Jorginho told ESPN Brasil. ‘I believe, given he was a legend at the club, he skipped some steps necessary for learning before moving to a big club.
MORE: Rudiger sends message to Amartey after Chelsea ‘punish’ Leicester for FA Cup incident
‘Shut up and get ready!’ – Tuchel sends warning to Chelsea star
Harry Kane picks preferred team as Chelsea, Man City & Man Utd open talks
‘He came to a club where he is a legend, without having experience at other clubs. I think he came too soon, skipped a few steps ahead and wasn’t ready for a job at this level, to be honest.’
In his second interview after his sacking, Lampard hit back at the former Napoli player and claimed criticism from players who were barely used during his time incharge are merely par for the course.
He told the Telegraph: ‘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.
‘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.
‘After my year at Derby, I was pretty clear that I wanted to go into Chelsea, make them move the ball quicker, make them penetrate lines quicker. I wanted to go and do my thing and try to bring through some younger players into the team. I did that. I didn’t get to the end game, but I certainly think I did a lot of things that I can be proud of.
‘I come away with an overall feeling of pride in what I did in the job. I wanted to stay longer, I wanted real tangible success which, at Chelsea, is winning cups and winning leagues, but it didn’t happen.
‘Hopefully, from where I took over the job, I’ve laid down strong foundations for the future and in the context of where I wanted my managerial career to go, it was an amazing experience.’
