Jorginho: Frank Lampard “skipped a few steps” and “wasn’t ready” for Chelsea job

Chelsea midfielder Jorginho believes that former head coach Frank Lampard “wasn’t ready” for the Stamford Bridge job.

Lampard, Chelsea’s all-time leading goalscorer, returned to the club in the summer of 2019 to replace Maurizio Sarri – that’s despite his only managerial experience being a season at Derby where they were beaten by Aston Villa in the Sky Bet Championship play-off final.

The ex-midfielder managed to retain the club’s spot in the top-four and guided them to an FA Cup final where they were beaten by Arsenal in his first season.

It led to heavy spending in the 2020 summer transfer window, with Lampard dishing out around £220million in transfer fees which included the headline additions of Kai Havertz and Timo Werner from the Bundesliga. However, he was sacked in late January with Chelsea sat 9th in the Premier League standings.

Jorginho, who struggled for regular game time in the first-half of this season, believes that Lampard’s lack of managerial experience was one of the reasons his return to the club was ultimately unsuccessful.

“I’ll be really sincere here on Lampard. I believe, given he was a legend at the club, he skipped some steps necessary for learning before moving to a big club,” he told ESPN.

“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.”

Thomas Tuchel, who was appointed as Lampard’s replacement, has guided the Blues to the semi-finals of the Champions League, the FA Cup final and back into the top-four picture.

Will Frank Lampard be appointed England u21 manager?

Lampard was favourite to be the next England Under-21s manager after the Young Lions crashed out at the group stages of the 2021 European Championships despite beating Croatia 2-1, but has since been replaced at the head of the market.

The U21s needed to beat their opponents by two clear goals, but Croatia’s Domagoj Bradaric scored a late stoppage-time strike to send his side through at England’s expense.

It marks the second consecutive European Championships previous manager Aidy Boothroyd had overseen in which England have failed to progress beyond the group stages.

The current favourite to succeed Boothroyd is current England U17s coach Justin Cochrane.

Next England under-21s manager (odds via Sky Bet)

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Odds correct at 1610 BST (23/04/21)

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