Frank Lampard has detailed how Pep Guardiola sent him a voice note to encourage him during a testing start to his spell as Chelsea manager.
Lampard has been out of a job since being dismissed at Stamford Bridge back in January, with Thomas Tuchel taking over the reins.
The former Blues boss opened up to Gary Neville on The Overlap about how the Spaniard delivered a “special” touch after two damaging results despite good performances. But after feeling “disheartened”, Lampard has revealed how Guardiola’s voice note helped cheer him up.
During the wide-ranging conversation, Lampard reflected on his 18-month spell in charge of beloved club Chelsea and lifted the lid on Guardiola’s classy gesture right at the start of his tenure in Chelsea.
He said: "But behind the scenes and the things he does with LMA in terms of helping other managers, he’s sent me certain voice notes. I don’t like giving away private conversations, but it’s a nice one. When I first had my game in charge of Chelsea we lost 4-0 at Manchester United. We played well for 60 minutes and got done on the counter and then bang, bang, two, three, four. You can’t defend 4-0 as a manager, you have to take it on the chin.
"And then we went to the Super Cup and lost to Liverpool. We played well and lost on penalties. So I was on the plane on the way back from the game, feeling a little bit disheartened, and I got a voice note from him just saying that the way my team played was incredible, “I loved watching it”, and it was a really positive chat. It was one of those voice notes that deleted itself where it almost self-destructs.I wanted to get home and say: Listen to this, everyone! Pep said I’m a good manager! [laughs].
"But I just think touches like that that make an impression on you as a manager or with people around you… sometimes you get so caught up in your own world that you don’t see things.‘The fact that he’s doing the business and sending a voice note like that I thought was special. A lot of managers are like that."
Lampard also revealed a chance meeting he had with Jose Mourinho shortly after he was relieved of his duties as Chelsea head coach.
"I bumped into Jose [Mourinho] on the street just after getting sacked and he had a mask on as it was Covid and he whips his mask off," he added. "Before that when he was at Tottenham we were a little bit like that [signals friction], I’m not going to lie. And he came over and gave me a big hug and said, Now you’re a real manager because you’ve been sacked!, and I was like: “Cheers!” But I loved it and that’s the world we’re living in."
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