The Tottenham boss understands what his former player has gone through as the Blues made the decision to change managers on Monday
Jose Mourinho says that he doesn’t believe that he should reach out to recently dismissed Chelsea manager Frank Lampard, with the Spurs boss saying that he doubts his former midfielder has any desire to hear from him.
Mourinho’s Tottenham took care of Wycombe in the FA Cup on Monday, winning 4-1 thanks to goals from Gareth Bale and Harry Winks to go with a Tanguy Ndombele brace.
Spurs’ win came just hours after Mourinho’s former player, Lampard, was dismissed at Chelsea, with the Blues set to turn to Thomas Tuchel as his replacement.
Lampard played under Mourinho at Stamford Bridge from 2004-2007 and then again in 2013, winning two Premier League titles, two Carabao Cups, an FA Cup and a Community Shield together.
Mourinho, like Lampard, has felt the sting of a Chelsea sacking, having left the club in 2007 to be replaced by Avram Grant before being parting ways again in 2015 following a second stint in favour of Antonio Conte.
And, after receiving news of Lampard’s fate, Mourinho said he doesn’t feel it is his place to reach out to Chelsea’s now-former manager.
“I don’t think Frank wants to speak to me or with anyone apart from his close circle of family and friends,” Mourinho said.
“But I am always sad when a colleague loses his job and Frank is not just a colleague. He is an important person in my career so I feel sorry he did.
“But it is the brutality of football, especially modern football so when you become a manager you know that sooner or later it is going to happen to you.”
Mourinho’s Spurs are currently fifth in the Premier League, four points ahead of ninth-place Chelsea, who have played an extra game.
Although Tottenham have had their share of trouble this season as well, they were able to shake off a slow start to take down Wycombe and advance in the FA Cup on Monday.
“I knew that the game was going to be difficult,” Mourinho said. “We started preparing for the game by showing the players what they did a few years ago at White Hart Lane. Six of these players and the manager are still in this team.
“So that I think was a good start and then we prepared for the game knowing it could be hard and it was. It’s not easy to handle their style of play.
“If you don’t score goals they stay in the game and it was great for us to score in minute 85 because that gave us the possibility of not playing extra-time, which would have been not good for us.”
Be the first to comment