Former Chelsea manager Frank Lampard has broken his silence and reacted to the club’s Champions League success under Thomas Tuchel following his departure. The 42-year-old English coach admitted to having mixed emotions while watching the Blues march to the title at Estádio do Dragão in Porto last month.
The Chelsea legend was successful in leading the club out of the group stage in the Champions League but was sacked at the turn of the year after his side underperformed in the Premier League. His replacement, Thomas Tuchel, then fired the London club to the European trophy, beating Atletico Madrid, FC Porto, and Real Madrid in the knockout stages and, ultimately, Manchester City in the final. The German manager also secured a fourth-place finish in the Premier League with the squad he inherited from his predecessor.
Speaking to BBC Sports on Sunday, Lampard made a frank admission about how he felt about his former side tasting success without him. Asked if he had mixed emotions about Chelsea FC’s Champions League win, Lampard said on BBC Sport on Sunday: “Yeah, you work towards something you want to be there, you want to be the manager.
“I’ll never try to lay claim to that. I was part of the early foundation, potentially, but Thomas did a fantastic job getting them there.
“I will say when I watched it, firstly I’m a Chelsea person, the Chelsea fans are happy and the club deserves that.
“And secondly to see Mount and Reece [James] perform at that level, people like [Edouard] Mendy, [Ben] Chilwell and Thiago [Silva] who came in in my time there, makes me pretty proud.
“Again, it was a great achievement by them and very well managed.”
