Frank Lampard says he is “proud” of a lot of things he did at Chelsea after Jorginho claimed he “wasn’t ready” for a top job.
Former Paris Saint-Germain manager Thomas Tuchel has transformed Chelsea since replacing Lampard on January 26, with the Blues reaching the Champions League final and now looking likely finish in the top four this season.
Lampard was sacked with the club sat in ninth place after picking up just two wins in their previous eight league matches.
Jorginho was in and out the team under Lampard and the Italy international reckons the Chelsea legend took the job on too soon.
“Look, I’ll be really sincere here on Lampard,” Jorginho told ESPN Brasil.
“I believe, given he was a legend at the club, he skipped some steps necessary for learning before moving to a big club. He came to a club where he is a legend, without having experience at other clubs. I think he came too soon, skipped a few steps ahead and wasn’t ready for a job at this level, to be honest.”
But Lampard has rejected those claims and isn’t surprised some of his former players are making disgruntled statements about him.
Lampard told the Daily 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.
“After my year at Derby, I was pretty clear that I wanted to go into Chelsea, make them move the ball quicker, make them penetrate lines quicker. I wanted to go and do my thing and try to bring through some younger players into the team. I did that.
“I didn’t get to the end game, but I certainly think I did a lot of things that I can be proud of. I come away with an overall feeling of pride in what I did in the job. I wanted to stay longer, I wanted real tangible success which, at Chelsea, is winning cups and winning leagues, but it didn’t happen.
“Hopefully, from where I took over the job, I’ve laid down strong foundations for the future and in the context of where I wanted my managerial career to go, it was an amazing experience.”