‘I knew straight away’ – Lampard opens up on his Chelsea exit
Frank Lampard has lifted the lid on his Chelsea departure as he knew his fate “straight away” when he received a message from Bruce Buck.
The Chelsea legend played just short of 650 times for them between 2001 and 2014. He won the Premier League three times and he lifted the Champions League in 2011/12.
After retiring in 2016, Lampard took his first managerial job in 2018 as he took over at Derby County.
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The Rams narrowly missed out on promotion in 2018/19 and Lampard replaced Maurizio Sarri at Chelsea that summer.
The Blues finished fourth under Lampard in his first season in charge. They spent over £200m on new signings ahead of the 2020/21 campaign.
Lampard was sacked at the start of this year as a run of poor results dropped Chelsea down to ninth in the Premier League.
Thomas Tuchel replaced the Englishman and he has done a superb job. They won the Champions League last season and they are currently top of the Premier League.
Speaking on Gary Neville’s YouTube channel (The Overlap), Lampard revealed details about his exit:
“Well, we’d beaten Luton in the FA Cup fourth round or whatever it was.
“Then the next morning I got a message from Bruce Buck, the chairman, saying ‘can you move training and come and meet us in the boardroom?’
“That first message as well, you kind of wake up and think ‘let’s have a flick through Instagram’.
“I’m joking but once the club makes that decision to be fair there’s no nice way to do it.”
Neville then asked his former England teammate whether he could remember what the message said.
Lampard added: “Can you come and meet us in the boardroom at Stamford Bridge? I knew straight away.
“As I say there is no nice way to do that and there may be different ways of etiquette to do it but at the end of the day the result is the same.
“When I met Bruce and Marina (Granovskaia) it was very cordial. I knew what was coming then as well. Not at the time but you’re thankful for the period.
“It is what it is. They are going to move on and there’s nothing you can do there. I’ve never been in that position before so it was a bit surreal at the time but when you take the job you understand that that call could come.
“At Chelsea it probably will come unless you go and win back to back titles and that was never going to happen.”