Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has revealed why he allowed Frank Lampard to leave Stamford Bridge, saying “He left Chelsea as a free agent and chooses his life, we can’t complain about it. That’s football.”
Lampard, 36, left Chelsea in the summer for newly formed MLS club New York City, before returning to the Premier League on loan with champions Manchester City.
Lampard started for City against Leicester City on Saturday, scoring the only goal to help his side close in on Chelsea with a 1-0 win at the King Power Stadium. But Jose Mourinho has asserted that allowing Lampard’s departure was the right decision.
“It’s his life, nothing to do with us,” he said. “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 midfielder with the under-21s) 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.
“You can argue ‘You have John Terry and Didier Drogba’. Different. Drogba is a striker that is coming to help and support the team.
“John Terry is the best central defender in English football and it doesn’t matter how old he is.
“The nucleus of the team has to be developed and to have a big player like Frank we would stop the development of the other guys.”
Former England international Lampard also scored a dramatic equaliser against his old club earlier in September.
