Lampard hits back at Jorginho over criticism of his Chelsea tenure

Diminishing European hopes, a series of poor results, and failure to get the best out of the players saw the former midfielder get relieved of his managerial duties.

Frank Lampard insists he accepted the Chelsea job offer “with his head”, denying Jorginho’s claim that the opportunity had come too early for him.

Lampard showed great promise in his debut season at Chelsea as he led them to a top-four Premier League finish and an FA Cup final. What’s even more impressive is the Blues had lost star player Eden Hazard and were even unable to replace him due to a transfer ban.

However, it all went downhill thereafter. Chelsea were found down at ninth in the league table in January despite having spent €250 million in the summer, and the club legend was shown the exit door.

After the manager’s sacking, Jorginho claimed the Lampard “skipped some steps necessary for learning” before making the jump from Derby County to Chelsea.

In response, the former midfielder tells The Telegraph: “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.

“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. I took it with a pragmatic view of: ‘what’s the situation? OK, this is Chelsea, I’m going from Derby to Chelsea.’ Not many managers would turn that down head or heart, let’s get it right.”