Chelsea relieve Frank Lampard of his duties 18 months into the job; Lampard: "I am disappointed not to have had the time this season to take the club forward and bring it to the next level"; Thomas Tuchel in line to replace Lampard on 18-month contract
Tuesday 26 January 2021 12:40, UK
Jose Mourinho says Frank Lampard's sacking at Chelsea demonstrates the brutality of modern football management.
Club legend Lampard was relieved of his duties just 18 months into the job after a run of one win in five Premier League games left the Blues 11 points behind leaders Manchester United.
Lampard won three Premier League titles with Chelsea as a player under Mourinho, who expressed his sadness at the news before admitting it is a reality managers are always dreading.
"I am always sad when a colleague loses his job," Mourinho said, "Frank is not just a colleague, he is an important person in my career, so I feel sorry he did (get sacked).
"But it is the brutality of football, especially modern football, so when you become a manager you know that sooner or later it is going to happen to you."
Mourinho comments came after Spurs' survived a scare at Wycombe to book an FA Cup fifth-round tie away at Everton.
Spurs looked like being taken to extra-time by the Championship strugglers as they missed a host of chances to kill the game after Gareth Bale's goal had cancelled out Fred Onyedinma's surprise opener for Wycombe.
Even the introduction of Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son could not do the trick until the final five minutes when a Harry Winks strike and a quickfire Tanguy Ndombele double sent Mourinho's men through.
The late goals came as a welcome relief for Mourinho, whose side are back in Premier League action on Thursday when champions Liverpool visit north London.
"I knew that the game was going to be difficult - we started preparing for the game by showing the players what they did a few years ago at White Hart Lane," Mourinho said, referencing the 2017 fourth-round tie which Spurs won 4-3 at the death.
"Six of these players and the manager are still in this team. So that I think was a good start and then we prepared for the game knowing it could be hard and it was. It's not easy to handle their style of play.
"If you don't score goals they stay in the game and it was great for us to score in minute 85 because that gave us the possibility of not playing extra-time, which would have been not good for us."
The game would have been a different story had Bale been more clinical in front of goal, as he missed several chances to add more goals to his tally.
But it was still a noteworthy night for the Wales international as he completed the first 90 minutes of his second spell at the club on his first appearance since December 23.
"It was good, was good," Mourinho said. "Some good movement. Some one against one, beating people, attacking people, creating chances. Of course, scoring a goal.
"Apart from that I never felt he couldn't play the 90 minutes. I never felt that I needed to change him and that is good. Of course, the Championship is a good, competitive level and the aggression is high and the intensity is good. So I'm happy.
"We had some good performances from the boys that started the game. Of course, Winks man of the match which is very much deserved because I thought he was very, very good in everything he did, apart from the goal.
"The goal is just a very small important detail but (I am) happy because I think the attitude of the team was very professional and it's the kind of game that even if we lose because we don't take chances and they score in the last minutes, let's say that, I wouldn't be sad because of the very professional performance."
