Chelsea’s head coach, Thomas Tuchel, has revealed that before taking up his current job, he informed the Blues board that his predecessor, Frank Lampard, needed more time as coach.
He made this known in an interview with Sky Sports monitored by African Entertainment.
He indicated that he questioned the Board’s decision to fire Lampard.
In the interview ahead of Chelsea’s Sunday, August 22, 2021 clash with Arsenal, Tuchel stated that “I actually said to the board, ‘are you sure of doing this? Because they will not like you. Maybe he deserves more time.’ Because when I think of Chelsea I think about Frank Lampard, John Terry, Petr Cech, Didier Drogba.”
Lampard was fired at Chelsea in January 2021 after being in charge for 18 months. He won 11 major trophies as a player at Chelsea.
“I think about him in the very first moment because he embodies everything that Chelsea is: hard work, aggressive player, big leader but at the same time a normal guy on the pitch and such a team player. A true, true legend” Tuchel says about Lampard.
“But I clearly understood the choice was more or less made and it was take it or leave it. Then I hoped for a fair chance with the players because when you step in, there is not everybody happy from 20, 22 players,” he added.
Tuchel joined Chelsea from Paris Saint-Germain.
