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The Tottenham manager understands what his former player went through when the Blues made the decision to change coaches on Monday.
José Mourinho says he doesn’t think he should approach recently fired Chelsea manager Frank Lampard and the Spurs manager says he doubts his former midfielder has any desire to hear from him.
Mourinho’s Tottenham took over for Wycombe in the FA Cup on Monday, winning 4-1 thanks to goals from Gareth Bale and Harry Winks to go with a double from Tanguy Ndombele.
Spurs’ victory came just hours after Mourinho’s former player Lampard was fired at Chelsea, and the Blues turned to Thomas Tuchel as his replacement.
Lampard played with Mourinho at Stamford Bridge from 2004 to 2007 and then again in 2013, winning two Premier League titles, two Carabao Cups, an FA Cup and a Community Shield together.
Mourinho, like Lampard, has felt the pain of a Chelsea farewell, as he left the club in 2007 to be replaced by Avram Grant before parting ways again in 2015 after a second season in favor of Antonio Conte.
And, after receiving news of Lampard’s fate, Mourinho said he doesn’t feel it is his place to contact the now-former Chelsea manager.
“I don’t think Frank wants to talk to me or anyone other than his close circle of family and friends,” Mourinho said.
“But it always saddens me when a colleague loses his job and Frank is not just a colleague. He is an important person in my career, so I am sorry he did.”
“But it’s the brutality of football, especially modern football, so when you become a coach you know that sooner or later it will happen to you.”
Mourinho’s Spurs are currently fifth in the Premier League, four points ahead of Chelsea, ninth, who have played an extra match.
Although Tottenham have struggled this season as well, they were able to shake off a slow start to defeat Wycombe and advance to the FA Cup on Monday.
“I knew the game was going to be difficult,” Mourinho said. “We started preparing for the game by showing the players what they did a few years ago at White Hart Lane. Six of these players and the coach are still on this team.
“I think it was a good start and then we prepared for the game knowing that it could be difficult and it was. It is not easy to manage his style of play.
“If you don’t score, they stay in the game and it was great for us to score in the 85th minute because that gave us the possibility of not playing extra time, which would not have been good for us.”
