Rio Ferdinand has described Frank Lampard‘s Chelsea sacking as a ‘knee-jerk reaction’ and argued his former England team-mate should have been afforded more time.
Lampard was sacked on Monday morning following a torrid run of five defeats from eight matches that saw Chelsea slump to ninth in the Premier League table.
It followed over £220million of investment in Lampard’s squad over the summer with the likes of Timo Werner, Kai Havertz and Hakim Ziyech coming in.
Frank Lampard was sacked by Chelsea on Monday after just 18 months in the job
Lampard’s former England team-mate Rio Ferdinand described his sacking as a ‘knee-jerk’ reaction and believes he should have been given more time
Though unsurprised by the sacking given the turnover of managers at Stamford Bridge, Ferdinand believes Lampard’s status as a club legend should have allowed him more time to build a side capable of challenging for silverware.
Speaking on his Rio Ferdinand Presents FIVE YouTube channel, the former England defender said: ‘I don’t think he’ll be surprised. He’s an intelligent fella.
‘He would have understood the remit when he walked through that door and he would’ve seen people like Carlo Ancelotti – who has the third highest win rate in Premier League history behind Jose Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson – get the sack a year after winning the league.
‘So he’s not going in there thinking he’s going to have loads of time but I think he would have expected maybe a bit more time, given they had the transfer embargo when he went in there.
‘Then he gets money to spend, he spends over £200m and then you’d probably expect a little bit of time, more than what he’s got, to bed them players in and for them players to become part of the furniture.
‘He has not been afforded that and in the grand scheme of things, with the way this has been reported on, you’d think they’re in a relegation dog fight.
‘But they’re five points off Champions League, 11 points off Manchester United who are top of the league. It ain’t a million miles away.
Ferdinand (right) believes Lampard (left) should have been afforded more time at Chelsea
Club legend Lampard became the 10th manager sacked during the Roman Abramovich era
‘He’s had a bad spell but he’s still only them amount of points behind so when you put it in that context, I feel this is a very quickfire decision and I feel he deserved more time.
‘It was a knee-jerk reaction but Chelsea’s hierarchy are renowned for this, it’s normal for them and they make quick, brutal decisions.
‘On one hand I respect that, they don’t dally, and they get things done but on the other had, it’s Frank Lampard, a club legend. He’s someone all the fans would have been clamouring for and the young players at the club.
‘You’d think that little bit of history would have afforded him a bit more time but this is a results business and the situation shows you that.’
Ferdinand added that the Chelsea board were being unrealistic if they expected all the expensive arrivals from last summer to settle into the team so quickly.
He said: ‘When you sign that many players that he did in the transfer window, surely that needs and requires time.
‘You need time to get those players to bed in, to understand the culture at the football club, to get them to understand your messages as a manager, what you want from them as an individual and part of the team, moving into a different country… there’s so many different parts of becoming someone who can adapt to life in a new country and club.
‘There’s so many different layers to it that I just don’t think it was realistic to expect Frank to be fighting at the top of the Premier League immediately.
Chelsea have slumped to ninth in the Premier League table after five defeats in eight games
‘I think he said that when he got in there and at the beginning of the season, to expect Chelsea, given their transfer embargo and they’ve recruited a lot of players, to be trying to win the league would be foolish.
‘They’re only five points off of the Champions League positions right now so I really do feel it’s a quick decision.
‘Are you expecting all these players to be performing 9 and 10/10, to their full capacity and potential immediately? It’s not realistic to expect that.’
Ferdinand added: ‘Yes, Havertz hasn’t performed to the levels that we expected him, Werner hasn’t been as consistent as we expected, Ziyech has been injured a fair bit, Pulisic is coming back from injury now.
Lampard has failed to produce results and struggled to integrate six high-profile signings
‘Their best performer in terms of recruitment that they’ve brought in has been Thiago Silva, who is nearer my age! That tells you it hasn’t gone completely right in terms of transfers.
‘I believe all these signings he’s brought in will come good but they are being afforded time. Frank isn’t. So it’s very different being a player than it is a manager these days.’
