Frank Lampard was in no mood to discuss Didier Drogba’s swipe that he no longer recognises Chelsea under the ownership of Todd Boehly.
Chelsea were eliminated out of the Champions League by Real Madrid on Tuesday, with the club suffering a 4-0 defeat on aggregate in the quarter-final.
It was the latest blow in an already disappointing campaign for the club which has seen Lampard return as manager on an interim basis until the end of the season.
Lampard has now lost each of his first four games in charge since taking over from Graham Potter, including 2-0 losses to Madrid with the Spanish champions. It is the first time since 1993 that Chelsea have lost four consecutive games.
Lampard is Chelsea’s third manager of the season, with the London side having started the campaign with Thomas Tuchel in charge.
Boehly took the decision to sack Tuchel in September and hired Potter, but the appointment did not work out with Lampard returning to Stamford Bridge at the start of April.
Drogba, who scored over 160 goals for Chelsea and played a key role in their Champions League success in 2012, was covering the defeat to Madrid for Canal Plus and criticized the current state of affairs at Stamford Bridge.
“I don’t recognise my club,” Drogba said. “It’s no longer the same club. There is a new owner and a new vision. Of course, we try to compare it with what happened during the [Roman] Abramovich era where a lot of players were brought in, but the decisions were very intelligent.
“Bringing in players like Petr Cech, Andriy Shevchenko, Herman Crespo, Michael Essien, Didier Drogba, Florent Malouda, and I go on. It was done to win titles. They are players with a certain experience. The strategy is now different; we bet on young players. But a dressing room of over 30 players is difficult [to manage] for a manager.”
Lampard was asked about Drogba’s views after the defeat. “They’re Didier’s comments, sorry,” he bluntly told reporters.
