Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has stood by his decision to allow midfielder Frank Lampard to leave the club in the summer. The Chelsea legend departed Stamford Bridge after his 13 years that brought numerous trophies like the Premier League and the Champions League.
Lampard is regarded as one of most important players in the club’s history after also scoring more than 200 goals in all competitions – despite being a midfielder. The 36-year-old has continued his goal scoring form even at Manchester City, where he is set to spend the next six months on loan from New York City.
Some of the goals scored by Lampard for the Manchester outfit have come in crucial circumstances. It has helped Manuel Pellegrini’s team stay in touch with Chelsea at the top of the table. This has increased questions to Mourinho as to whether Chelsea made the wrong decision in letting Lampard leave and strengthen one of their main rivals. Mourinho has responded by saying that the blues needed to look at the future and Lampard was simply not offering this at 36 years of age. He says that the progress of young midfielders like Oscar would have been hurt with Lampard’s presence.
Only a couple of players from the Chelsea team of 2004 still remain at the club. “It’s his life, nothing to do with us.He left Chelsea as a free agent and chooses his life, we can’t complain about it. That’s football.My view is that, when you want to look forward, look to the future, and have people like (Cesc) Fabregas and (Nemanja) Matic and Jeremie Boga (a U21 midfielder), which are the next 10 years of the club.The project is to prepare for the next 10 years, not for the next year. We made the right decision,” said Mourinho.