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.
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