Frank Lampard was sacked as head coach 18 months after returning to Chelsea; Lampard on his relationship with the fans: "I walk around and see Chelsea fans all of the time. You do wonder what the reaction will be"
Wednesday 19 May 2021 21:24, UK
Frank Lampard admits he feared his bond with Chelsea supporters would be tarnished following his sacking as head coach.
Lampard was let go by Chelsea after just 18 months and was replaced by Thomas Tuchel, who has since taken the club to the Champions League final.
Lampard, who was voted into the Premier League Hall of Fame on Wednesday, holds Chelsea's all-time goalscoring record and is widely considered one of the club's greatest ever players.
But after failing to achieve similar success during his time as the club's head coach, Lampard feared he would lose the relationship he built up with supporters during his playing days.
"I have to say that when you lose your job it's hard," Lampard told The Telegraph. "Anyone who says anything differently is a liar. It's not the truth.
"There's an element of pride, you're working towards something one day and then it's taken away from you. That's life. You have to be a realist about it."
"Very quickly the dust has to settle and one of the biggest things for me - living in Chelsea, a mile from the ground - is that I walk around and see Chelsea fans all of the time.
"You do wonder what the reaction will be because you've lost your job - will they be happy with what you did or not? And I think it made me realise even more, the bond I had with them from my playing days but also what they saw, what I was working towards in season one [as coach], up until the point where I left in season two.
"I was working with a real vision because I care about the club. I wouldn't have gone into the job without a full understanding that at some stage I might leave in whatever circumstances.
"I didn't go into it with just a full heart, wanting to go back to Chelsea after a year managing at Derby. I went into it with a full head and realising what an opportunity it was. Would it last forever? History tells you probably not."
Blues midfielder Jorginho made headlines in the wake of Lampard's sacking for suggesting that the Chelsea job had come too soon for him.
Lampard says he has no issue with criticism from his former players but insists he did not take the job on purely emotional terms.
"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 added.
"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.
