Frank Lampard believes Roman Abramovich’s hire and fire culture was pivotal in Chelsea not winning more Premier League titles.
During the 13 years Lampard spent at Chelsea as a player he won three league titles, all during the Abramovich era – despite the club going through 13 permanent managers in his 19 years as owner.
Now installed as interim manager, Lampard is new chairman Todd Boehly’s third appointment in little over a year and the former midfielder has warned the club against making past mistakes.
“I was always part of the Chelsea team that changed managers regularly,” he told reporters ahead of the match against Arsenal tonight.
“With hindsight, it is easy to say I had great success. I won three titles but I should have won five or six. That’s my feeling.
“We might have won more titles if we’d had more consistency and been able to work in one direction. And I feel like we should have.
“If you are trying to work for something, you look at the successful models at the top end of the league at the minute.
“You see managers that have been working there a long time, recruitment that is aligned with the type of squad and identity they want to bring and it works in a direction.
“You see Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal. So clearly if you want to get there, it’s something that hopefully aligns.
“At the moment for us it hasn’t. We have to find a way that it does.”
Former Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino is the hot favourite to take over in the summer and he was commended for his work in building Spurs into regular top four contenders during his five years in charge.
Lampard has called for more stability at Chelsea, although he admits the club’s demand for success should always be the forefront of the owner’s mind.
“Arsenal had quite a few years of not getting what they wanted, so they decided we are going to stick with this and maybe get it to work,” he added.
“Everyone has different pressures, so I don’t think you can say that the next manager should be here for five years because within that Chelsea need to have successes.
“But in an ideal world, the next manager would bring more stability.”
