Former England and Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard was on Tuesday awarded with an Officer of the Order of British Empire (OBE) honour by Prince William for his services to football.
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“I’m sure he’s pulling his hair out and wanting to turn the corner”, Lampard said of his former boss Mourinho. I know he’s the most successful manager in Chelsea’s history.
“With Mourinho in charge, the squad they’ve got, the talent they’ve got on the pitch – I don’t see any way that they won’t turn it around”, he told BBC Sport.
“I’m not right behind the scenes anymore, so I’m just talking looking from the outside but every team has hard periods”.
Mourinho is under increasing pressure after being charged with misconduct by the FA following his dismissal during Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to West Ham – a result which leaves the champions 15th in the table having lost five of their 10 league fixtures this season. “It’s a blip. You don’t expect them to lose that many games at the start of the season, but they’ll turn it around”, maintained Lampard, who played 106 games for England before his retiring at the conclusion of the 2014 Federation Internationale de Football Association World Cup. It’ll be hard to win the Premier League now but they’ll move up to where they belong soon.
As for Chelsea’s stuttering start to the season, he added: “We’ve all been in that situation”.
Lampard, who won two Premier League titles under Mourinho, says he is still the right man for the job and that his record speaks for itself.
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“To receive an award like this amongst a few very special people here in the military, people that are doing a lot of good work in charity – it was very humbling for me to be involved and to be amongst them”.
