Frank Lampard Says Chelsea Should Not Have Fired Jose Mourinho

Former Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard has rallied behind Jose Mourinho and claims the Blues "should have waited until the end of the season" before making such a radical change in their management.

The New York City FC playmaker won two Premier League titles under Mourinho at Stamford Bridge, and although he supported interim boss Guus Hiddink, he declared Mourinho deserved more time, per a Monday report by the Sun:

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Guus Hiddink will be a fantastic manager in the interim but they should have waited until the end of the season. If they could have recovered they would have had a great manager and a successful future ahead.

Chelsea are one of the best clubs in the world and with that status they can’t be 16th in the Premier League in December, so there’s clearly a problem.

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Chelsea are unbeaten in their two games under Hiddink since he was installed as a temporary replacement for Mourinho, clinching draws against Watford and Manchester United in the space of three days.

Bet365 highlighted Diego Costa's sudden improvement in form, having bagged a brace against the Hornets, as a particular sign that things may be on the up with Mourinho gone:  

Lampard is sure to hold some allegiance with Mourinho, a manager with whom he bagged arguably his greatest memories and achievements as a Chelsea player.

That being said, the west London outfit, sitting 16th in the Premier League at the time of Mourinho's dismissal, was caught between a rock and a hard place in trying to enact swift change at Stamford Bridge.

Vadim Ghirda/Associated Press

Mourinho was also fired in the third year of his first reign at Chelsea, supporting the theory the Portuguese struggled to maintain his elite management standards beyond that length of time.

Hiddink is already making slight adjustments to suggest a brighter future lies ahead for Chelsea, but it will take longer than a fortnight to determine if sacking Mourinho was the correct decision for the club.