Frank Lampard has hit out at Jose Mourinho’s comments that Antonio Rudiger is “will have broken ribs for sure” after Tottenham’s Heung-Min Son was sent off for kicking the Chelsea defender.
The controversial incident in a fiery battle between Chelsea and Spurs has since seen both Son and Rudiger subjected to racist abuse, and Lampard doesn’t believe his former boss at Chelsea was right to criticize Rudiger.
“With Toni, in this incident when he’s having to post after the game about something we know is a huge deal [racism], I think to question his integrity in that time is disappointing for sure,” Lampard said. “Pretty universally, certainly what I heard in the commentary and the post-match reflection was that the Son incident was a red card. It wasn’t brutal but it was instinctive that warrants a red card in the modern day. It was pretty clear that was the case. I wouldn’t question Toni’s integrity on that. So I do defend Toni firmly on it.”
Rudiger probably overreacted slightly from the challenge, but Son still lashed out and his red card, even though Spurs appealed against it, was warranted.
Lampard then appeared to have a dig at Mourinho about the likes of Kevin De Bruyne and Mohamed Salah being sold while he was manager at Chelsea and youngsters not being given a chance.
“If we are not patient and [don’t] stick with the players we might be in a situation [like] before where absolutely top world-class players at this minute have been at Chelsea when they were 20 or 21 and managers maybe did not stick with them so much then,” Lampard said. “I am in a position where I will stick with them.”
Grab your popcorn. A Lampard-Mourinho manager feud is the one we didn’t know we needed.
