Frank Lampard’s second adventure on the Chelsea bench did not last. Arrived to finish the season as an interim after the dismissal of Thomas Tuchel at the start of the season, then Graham Potter, fired at the start of the spring, the club legend failed to save what could still be saved. The Blues ended up being knocked out of the Champions League in the quarter-finals and finished the league in a miserable 12th place. There will therefore be no European Cup this season.
Not really a surprise for the interim who immediately understood where he had set foot. “When I arrived, I could see that the team spirit and solidarity was not there. It was nothing bad, but you have to prepare for the elite to become the elite. I saw in training that the level was not enough. It wasn’t enough to get a result at Brentford or at home or against anyone. Not to mention Real Madrid…” he assures at the microphone of The Diary Of A CEO.
Lampard: “I had no magic wand to motivate them”
Obviously, the step in C1 was much too high for this team, despite all the reinforcements recruited at great cost during the summer and then the winter. “Right after the elimination where we failed to face Real, we put ourselves in a position where you wonder what you are playing for… And that is not the norm at Chelsea. Here we should be playing for something but we had nothing to play for. This is another reason why motivation has gone down.”
If he does not regret this experience, Lampard concedes that there could be no cohesion in the locker room because of these numerous transfers and an oversized workforce. “I noticed very quickly that some players were thinking first about the end of the season and what the future was going to look like for them. If I’m a player who hasn’t played in seven months and I’m thinking of leaving in four weeks, I’m probably going to have a hard time motivating myself. I had no magic wand to motivate them.he continues.
Pochettino is warned
“When you have international players in large numbers and you tell them they have to stay home this weekend, it’s not easy.” Despite his club legend status and freshness, the former midfielder soon found himself stuck. It could not do better than its predecessors. However, he wanted to salute the work of Todd Boehly and his team, who spent lavishly, to the detriment of the group’s unity. “Their intentions are good.” But the results are not there. Pochettino knows what to expect.
