"He would just come in and be really harsh" - Frank Lampard says ex-Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich threatened to axe players before games

Chelsea legend Frank Lampard opened up about former owner Roman Abramovich's threats to players before games.

The Russian oligarch was in charge of the Blues for nearly two decades before he was forced to cede ownership in 2022, when Todd Boehly and a consortium of investors took over.

Lampard established his name as a Chelsea icon during the years of success under Abramovich's ownership. Speaking about his time at Stamford Bridge during the Russian's reign, Lampard said on The Overlap (as quoted by The Sun):

"Roman had a few harsh meetings with us in his first few years when he was more present. One was before we played Manchester United at Old Trafford in the Champions League [in 2011], he would just come in and be really harsh."

He continued

"What he said was always translated, which makes it even harsher. The Russian while we waited for the translation - it wasn't going to be good."

The former Manchester City midfielder further stated:

"He was like: 'Do I think we are going to win this game? No. Will you be here next season if we don't win this game? A lot of you, no.' This was two hours before the game."

Frank Lampard had an extremely successful career with the Blues. He won three Premier League titles, one Champions League, four FA Cups and two EFL Cups during his time at Chelsea.

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"They were not my issues to solve" - Frank Lampard opens up on second stint as Chelsea manager

After a year-and-a-half-long stint as Chelsea boss, Lampard returned as caretaker manager in April last year until the end of the 2022-23 campaign. The west Londoners were in dismal form last season and had already sacked Thomas Tuchel and Graham Potter in the same campaign.

During his aforementioned interview on The Overlap, Lampard spoke about his second stint as the club's manager. The Englishman admitted that he did not find the job difficult as he believed the club's issues could not be solved in such a short span of time.

Lampard said (via football.london):

“I didn’t find Chelsea as difficult, personally, because I knew it was finite and it was going to be six or seven weeks. I learned very quickly in my head what the issues were there and they were not my issues to solve long-term.

"I don’t want to sound like I palmed them off, but if you go into a place where there are a lot of problems here, 'Can I turn it around in nine games when motivation has just gone down'? I came to peace with that a little bit."

The Blues had one of their worst Premier League campaigns last term, finishing 12th in the table after just 11 wins from 38 fixtures. This season, Chelsea have shown inconsistent form, ninth in the standings and 12 points adrift of the top four.