Jorginho says Frank Lampard wasn’t ready to be Chelsea head coach yet

Frank Lampard’s 18 months in charge showed him to be an excellent youth talent developer, revolutionizing Chelsea’s standards in that regard. But his results elsewhere didn’t quite live up to expectations, and ultimately led to his dismissal in January.

Thomas Tuchel’s success with Chelsea thus far, especially in being able to solve the defensive issues that had plagued the team throughout the past year and a half (aside from whatever happened against West Brom) seems to have justified that decision.

The final narrative on Lampard’s tenure is still being formed, but the general consensus appears to be that he wasn’t quite ready for the job, whatever exactly that may mean. An unexpected confirmation of that narrative comes now from Jorginho, who was one of Lampard’s preferred players, especially during the first season, and was made an important part of the team on and off the pitch as Vice-captain as well.

“Look, I will be quite honest about Lampard. I believe that because he is a club legend, he skipped some steps that you need to take to reach a great team. He arrived at a club where he is a legend, without experience from other [great] clubs.”

“I think he arrived too early. He skipped a few steps and he was not ready to work at this level, honestly.”

-Jorginho; source: ESPN Brasil

Jorginho may not be wrong, but it’s perhaps not quite his place to state such things publicly. But hey, it’s been a ridiculous week already...

Meanwhile, Lampard has recently been linked with the England U21 job, so it’s unlikely that we’ve heard the last from him in football management. He’s just getting started, after all.