Jose Mourinho said the sacking of Frank Lampard at Chelsea shows the brutality of modern football management.
Club legend Lampard was relieved of his duties after just 18 months in charge after a streak of one win in five matches in the Premier League that left the Blues behind leaders Manchester United by 11 points.
Lampard won three Premier League titles with Chelsea as a player under Mourinho, who voiced his grief for the news before admitting it was a fact the coaches always feared.
Mourinho said: “I always feel sad when a colleague loses his job. Frank is not just a colleague, he is an important person in my career, so I feel sorry for his action (fired).”
“But this is football brutality, especially modern football, so when you become a coach you know this will happen to you sooner or later.”
Late Tottenham relief at Wycombe
Harry Winks has scored twice in his last nine matches for Tottenham in all competitions, the same number he has scored in his first 151 games for the club.
Mourinho’s comments came after Tottenham escaped fear at Wycombe to book a match in the FA Cup fifth round away to Everton.
Tottenham appeared to be taken into extra time by the tournament flounderers as they squandered a set of chances to kill the match after Gareth Bale’s goal canceled Fred Onidima’s surprise opening goal for Wycombe.
Even the introduction of Harry Kane and Hong Min Son couldn’t do the trick until the last five minutes when Harry Winks sent a quick shot and Tangwe Ndombele double Mourinho’s men.
The late goals came as a relief to Mourinho, whose team returned to the Premier League matches on Thursday when defending champions Liverpool visited north London.
There was only 72 seconds between Harry Winks, who gave Tottenham the lead, and Tangi Ndombele that made it 3-1
“I knew it was going to be difficult – we started preparing for the match by showing what they did to the players a few years ago at White Hart Lane,” Mourinho said, referring to the fourth round match of 2017, which Tottenham had won four times. 3 at death.
“Six of those players and the manager are still in this team. So I think it was a good start and then we got back to the game knowing it might be difficult and it was like that. It’s not easy to deal with their style of play.”
“If you don’t score, they will stay in the game and it was great to score in the 85th minute because that gave us the possibility not to play in overtime, which was not good for us.”
Impressed by Jose Bell and Winx
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The match would have been different had Bale been more effective in front of goal, as he missed many opportunities to add more goals to his tally.
But it was still a noteworthy night for the Welsh international, as he completed the first 90 minutes of his second spell at the club in his debut since December 23.
Mourinho said: “It was good, it was good.” “Some good moves. Some one-on-one, hitting people, attacking people, creating opportunities. Of course, scoring a goal.”
“Apart from that, I never felt like he could not play for 90 minutes. I never felt like I needed to change him and that’s a good thing. Of course, the tournament is good, competitive, aggressive and the intensity is good, so I’m happy.”
“We had some good performances from the boys who started the match. Of course, Winks the man of the match who deserved it so much because I thought he was very, very good at everything he did, except for goal.
“The goal is just a very important little detail but (I’m) happy because I think the team’s position was very professional and this is the kind of match that even if we lose because we don’t take risks and score in the last minutes, let’s say that, I won’t be sad because of the very professional performance.”