Chelsea hero Willian ranks Frank Lampard’s management above Blues title winner
Former Chelsea star Willian insists Frank Lampard was a “top” manager at Stamford Bridge, ranking him above all but one of the bosses he played under.
Willian won five major trophies in a glittering seven-year stint at Chelsea after famously snubbing Tottenham at the last minute to sign for the Blues from Anzhi for £25m in 2013.
Signed by Mourinho, he won the Premier League and League Cup under the Portuguese boss before winning another Premier League title and the FA Cup under Antonio Conte, and then the Europa League with Maurizio Sarri.
But it was his trophy-less season under Lampard that he looks back on with great fondness, as he told fellow ex-Blues star John Obi Mikel how the now Coventry manager gave him freedom and the confidence to be a leader at the club.
“He was top. For me, at Chelsea, after Mourinho, he was the best,” Willian said on The Obi One podcast.
“He literally gave me the key [the freedom to express myself]. I was the captain in some games.
“Very good [in training], intense sessions, short games, possession… very good. And that year we finished fourth with a transfer ban, with the young players. He was good.
“He gave me the key and said, ‘I trust you. I want you to help the young players, I want you to be the leader.’ But I’m not a guy that’s going to scream, I’m more quiet. But he said that to me, ‘I want you to be the leader’.”
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Arsenal a ‘big mistake’
Willian got nine goals and seven assists in the 2019/20 season under Lampard – his most prolific in the Premier League – but opted to join Arsenal that summer in a move he admits was “a big mistake”.
“First, I left the club because Chelsea wanted to give me a two [year contract], I wanted three,” Willian added. “It was not because of money, it was because I wanted one [more] year.
“And then the other side, Arsenal were meeting with my agent, and they wanted to give me three years.
“I met Mikel Arteta, I met everyone there. And they said, ‘we want you to be the main guy’. Arteta said to me: ‘We’re going to play like this, and I want you to be the main guy, I will build the team around you, I want to give you the key to the club’.
“When I heard that, obviously I love Chelsea, but I was in the last year of my contract, I was 32, and I was thinking three more years in London, stay with my family in London, they love London. And then I decided.
“To be honest I should have stayed but at that moment I was thinking maybe the best solution is to go there, and I signed for three years there but it was not good.”
