Ferdinand: Lack of fans made life more difficult for Lampard

Lewis Oldham
Ferdinand

Rio Ferdinand also suggested that Chelsea’s new signings needed “time to adjust” to life in England under Frank Lampard.

Chelsea were among the biggest spenders in Europe this summer as they spent over £200m on new signings. Timo Werner, Kai Havertz and Ben Chilwell were among their purchases.

The Blues did make a strong start to the 2020/21 season under Lampard. They sat top of the table in December after they beat Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United.


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But the Londoners have dipped of late. They have won just once in their last five Premier League games. This has seen them drop down to ninth in the Premier League.

It was confirmed on Monday that Lampard had been sacked. Ferdinand told BT Sport, as cited by Football London, that Chelsea’s heavy spending took away the “reality and reasoning” for Lampard:

“Without the fans there, they don’t see the emotional connection between the manager and the fans which Frank undoubtedly has.

“Everyone was clamouring for him to come into the club, the first year he did remarkably well, got them into the Champions League with the transfer embargo. Now he has had money to spend and that brings different pressure and expectation.

“What I think the spending has done is taken away the reality and the reasoning. When you invest and you recruit that amount of players and that amount of money, yes that brings extra pressure, but you cannot expect all of those players to hit the ground running.

“They need time to adjust and time to fit into the culture of the football club. New settings, new country.

“To expect it to be an immediate response from these players and to expect them to jump to a title-challenging team I don’t think was a reality.

“It seems that it was the expectation and at the moment, Chelsea are five points off a Champions League spot. The narrative is that they’re in a relegation fight if you listen to the media.”