Frank Lampard: Roman Abramovich’s arrival made my career as a player

Head coach Frank Lampard admits that the arrival of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich back in 2003 made his career as a player for the club, and he does not think his relationship with the club should affect the decisions made by the Russian billionaire.

The former Three Lions midfielder played for the English team for 13 years, a career which was filled with trophies in the first decade of Abramovich's arrival as the new owner of the club, before returning to Stamford Bridge as the head coach in 2019.

Lampard got off to an impressive start in his first season as a manager for the club, leading to high expectations for his second campaign as the club sanctioned deals of over £200m in the summer transfer window. But the manager has been put in question as Chelsea drops down to the ninth spot on the Premier League table after claiming four points in their last six games.

Despite have a summer transfer ban in 2019, Lampard was able to lead the club into securing a spot in the Champions League and also reaching the FA Cup final. This can be considered a successful season.

Lampard said via Sky Sports: "I have to sit here and say that when the owner came to Chelsea all those years ago, it made my career.

"Maybe I would have gone elsewhere or whatever might have happened in my personal career, but fortunately I was at a club that had an owner who was brought in and absolutely changed the face of it and changed my life.

"I understand that, but I don't think that should give me any head start. I'm here and I think the job I did last year, in one year, to get us to fourth, was a huge positive for us because of the constraints, but now I need to go again."

The Chelsea new signings last summer, Kai Havetz, and Timo Werner, have been struggling in adapting to the new team, and Lampard remains insistent on the duo improving over time as he referenced his career as a player at the club when https://www.boylesports.com/ covered the odds for every single match he played for the English club.

He continued: "As I said before and I keep saying the same thing, I never felt it would be a straight line. I was very aware of that going into the season, particularly when we didn't have time to work with the new players.

"I remember coming to this club a long time ago and in year one I was probably an average Premier League midfield player, year two I started better, year three better than that, then year four and onwards, my levels rose to levels where I could really contribute to the club.

"So when I look at the new players I see it like that and then the rest of the detail is how I work with the players.

"I can't jump out of that and try and dictate what anyone else thinks about it, it's beyond me. I'm here to coach the club and do as well as I can."

Chelsea will be returning for Premier League action on January 15, as they will be traveling to Craven Cottage to have a West London derby against Fulham in a battle for three points.