Frank Lampard feels settled with Jose Mourinho at Chelsea

 
PA
8 November 2013

Frank Lampard believes the return of Jose Mourinho as manager has removed the instability that has undermined Chelsea’s title challenge for the past two years.

Mourinho has already made an impact in his second spell at Stamford Bridge with the club second in the Premier League and looking good for the knock-out stages of the Champions League.

Chelsea have appointed seven coaches since Mourinho’s first spell ended in 2007 with Andre Villas-Boas, Roberto Di Matteo and interim manager Rafael Benitez all hired in the last two seasons alone.

The club paid the price for the uncertainty by finishing 25 and 14 points behind the champions in 2012 and last May respectively but are looking stronger contenders under Mourinho this term.

Lampard told talkSport: “After the instability of the past couple of years, it’s nice to be a bit more settled. Personally, I was delighted [he returned] because I knew what a great manager he’d be for the club and for me.

“We have a lot of young players here. They need direction, a good leader and someone to take them forward. For me, he was the man that was going to do it, and is doing it.

“After the interim manager thing, it was refreshing to talk about a two or three-year plan and to be able to look to the future. That was a good feeling for everyone at the club — not just for me.

“I think at the top level it’s about man-management, talking to players and appreciating how a player feels. Then you get a two‑way respect, and I think that’s what the manager here is very good at.

“He has a relationship with every player, whether they’re playing, on the bench, in the stands or injured. Sometimes I think there’s a bit of magic there, too – Mourinho has it, and people like Sir Alex Ferguson have it.

“They look quite hard-nosed from the outside, but when you actually go behind the scenes they work with their players very well.”

Chelsea take on West Brom at home tomorrow without Fernando Torres due to a thigh injury while Ryan Bertrand is also doubtful. Eden Hazard will return to the squad after being dropped against Schalke for missing training earlier in the week.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in