Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel admits he urged the club not to sack Frank Lampard.
Tuchel replaced Lampard in January and would go onto lead Chelsea to victory in the Champions League final.
Recalling Chelsea’s first contact, he told Sky Sports: “I actually said to the board: ‘Are you sure about this? Because they will not like you for it. Maybe he deserves more time’. When I think of Chelsea, I think of Frank Lampard, John Terry, Petr Cech and Didier Drogba.
“I think of Lampard as the first because he is the epitome of everything Chelsea is: hard work, aggressive players, great leaders, but at the same time a normal guy on the pitch and a huge team player. A true, true legend.
“But I understood that the decision was more or less made. It was take it or not for me. Then I just hoped that I would get a fair chance with the players, because when you step in, not all 20-22 players are happy.
“You can not expect everyone to be happy that the coach leaves. Especially not because they had a good Champions League group game, good results, good performances and sometimes they were simply just unlucky from the data we saw.
