During an exclusive interview, Frank Lampard has this morning told talkSPORT that he wouldn?t play for another Premier League club, and that Jose Mourinho instilled a lot of confidence in him when he managed Chelsea.
Lampard told Keys and Gray: ?In January time it looked like I might be leaving [Chelsea]. I?d been injured, to be fair to the club, for nearly two months. The manager changed, there wasn?t stability at the club and they were looking to the future. I would say that from January to March/April I thought this would be my last season at Chelsea.
?There were a couple of opportunities?opportunitiesto stay here [in the Premier League] but I can?t imagine playing for anyone else after being 12 years at Chelsea. I?ve got a lot of respect for a lot of other Premier League clubs, particularly the top ones, but I’m not sure I could have done that.
?As I see it, I feel like I can carry on playing at the top for another two or three years. So where else do I go, but stay at Chelsea if I can??
When asked what Mourinho had previously brought to Chelsea, Lampard said: ?It?s a presence and an aura and a way with people. He galvanises people. His own self-confidence reflects back on his teams and he did that to me personally.
?He made me realise that I could be better than what I was at the time. I thought I was a decent player, but I was a little bit inside myself about it. And he went to me, ?Listen, you can really get to the top? and he made me believe it a little bit.
?Maybe I?m quite impressionable. But he told me that, and I just tried to take it on and do it. It?s the ones [managers] that get the best out of you individually. Mourinho brought my confidence to a level it?d never been.
?Tactically, he?s very astute, and as a team, he sets you up brilliantly but what he does is get the best out of players, and get this togetherness that I?d never known til he came to the club and I haven?t seen it again since then.?
Alice Furse
