Arsenal star's six-word comment about Frank Lampard speaks volumes

Current Arsenal ace Jorginho admitted he was in awe when he first started working with Frank Lampard at Chelsea.

Club legend Lampard, who spent 13 years as a player at Stamford Bridge, acted out a poetic homecoming in 2019 as he left Derby County to take up the vacant managerial position at the club where he is so beloved.

His two-year stint in charge isn't looked back on especially fondly, however. After a fourth-placed trophy-less first campaign, he began his second with just two wins in eight league clashes - after being backed heavily in the transfer market - and was eventually dismissed for Thomas Tuchel to take over.

Yet, despite the brief nature of Lampard’s time at the reins, one of his former players, Jorginho - who has since been sold to rivals Arsenal - has admitted he enjoyed working under the Englishman whom he likened to an idol.

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"When I came to England, people would look at me and say: 'He can only play under Sarri.' So when he left, I saw an opportunity for me to show that I have my own qualities, that I'm here because I deserve to be and I can add to the team and contribute," Jorginho told the podcast via Betway.

"Then Frank Lampard came in and I had I never met him before. I was a little kid watching an idol. In the first weeks, I would be like: 'Wow, I'm working with Frank Lampard,' it was like an amazing experience for me."

On 14 July 2018, the Italian midfielder moved to the Blues on the same day that new manager Maurizio Sarri was announced. The five-year-long £50million deal led some to believe that the Italian was recruited just to please the new boss, as Jorginho was a stalwart for Sarri during his last job in charge of Napoli.

"I made some jokes like: “I was playing with you on PlayStation a few years ago!” The first season was really good with Frank," Jorginho added. "Then, things didn't work out the way we wanted.

“We were not getting the results back that we wanted. Then there was a change, Thomas [Tuchel] came in with his ideas and everything just went smoothly, like, crazy. It was so good.

“On the pitch he was really hard, and then he had a good balance because afterwards he'd be like a good friend having a chat. He created this really amazing connection and that's why it worked well straight away.”

Alas, Tuchel lasted just over a year in charge before being let go in September 2022. Graham Potter was next to arrive and fared no better - enduring for just over 200 days before he saw his time numbered. He was also the head coach who let Jorginho leave for just £12m as he headed to the Emirates.

Ironically, Lampard was then brought back in after a brief stint under Potter's assistant Bruno Saltor to steady the ship as an interim ahead of a new appointment in the summer. That appointment was former Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino, who, like many of his predecessors, lasted a short time in the Stamford Bridge dugout before being replaced by Enzo Maresca for this term.

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