Pep Guardiola has offered to go for dinner with sacked Chelsea manager Frank Lampard when lockdown is over as the Premier League reacts to the Blues legend's sacking.
Lampard was relieved from his duties at Stamford Bridge on Monday morning after just 18 months in the job, though a run of just two wins from their last eight league games sealed the Chelsea legend's fate.
Manchester City manager Guardiola claimed that managers do not have time to implement their own ideas anymore and offered to visit him when lockdown comes to an end.
Guardiola told a press conference on Monday: 'People talk about projects and ideas. They don't exist. You have to win or you will be replaced.
'I respect the decision by Chelsea, but I hope to see Frank soon and go to a restaurant with him when lockdown is finished.'
Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers, who was in the opposition dugout for Lampard's last league game as Chelsea manager, claimed Lampard deserved more time at Stamford Bridge due to the nature of his squad.
In the season-a-half he spent in the Chelsea dugout, Lampard helped promote youth players such as Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham, Billy Gilmour and Reece James to the Blues first-team.
However, the inability to get expensive summer signings Timo Werner and Kai Havertz performing to an acceptable level has let the former Chelsea and England midfielder down.
Rodgers told the media: 'I am really sad for him and his staff. I know how much the club means to him and all he’s given them.
'Looking at the squad, looking at everything else around it and how young they are, the adaption for players coming in, it's a team and a squad that needs time. Unfortunately he hasn't been given that time.
'I really feel for him. He had the courage to step out of an amazing career as a player and could have taken an easier route and went straight into coaching and managing.
'He took a job he couldn't really turn down, even though he had not a lot of experience. He thought he could do a great job there and I thought he did do that last season.
'Ok, results wouldn't have been what they wanted (this season) but it's not what he wanted because he's a winner himself. But like I said, I feel it is a job that needed time and sadly for him he doesn't have that time.'
Another manager who claimed Lampard was sacked too soon was Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson, who managed the 42-year-old at international level with England nearly a decade ago.
Like Guardiola, Hodgson has offered Lampard the chance to speak to him but extended his sympathy with the former Blues boss for the time being.
Hodgson said: 'I shall speak to him in the next few days. I won't give him any advice unless he asks for it - what I will do is say that I'm very saddened - he deserved a longer spell.
'I was rather hoping that the idol of the fans and Chelsea legend that he is, he'd get longer than 18 months.
'But unfortunately Chelsea is a massive club and they have this record of changing managers when the results are not what they are looking for.
'I hope that he will not allow it to cloud how good he is and how good he can be. I'm certain his phone will be red hot, but we can only sympathise and empathise with him.'
West Ham manager David Moyes, whose side sat above Chelsea in the Premier League table on the day of Lampard's sacking, also praised the work the dismissed manager did last year and hopes it does not dissuade other young English managers to try their hand at the top.
Moyes said: 'I'm disappointed for Frank as I saw him as one of the most up and coming English managers in the country. I think it's a big thing that we can encourage to get so many of our own British managers into the big leagues if we can.
'I'm sure he'll come back, he'll learn from it. He did a great job last year with the team, with so many of the young players coming through from the academy and they looked a really good side last season especially.
'I wish him good luck, he's a good guy Frank and I'm sure he'll take time off and then come back.'
Meanwhile, Southampton manager Ralph Hasehuttl, who was briefly linked with the Chelsea job in the weeks leading up to Lampard's sacking, claimed his Saints side is an example of what can be done if a club sticks by his manager.
The south coast club suffered a 9-0 home defeat to Leicester just over a year ago but did not sack the Austrian. Southampton now sit firmly in the top-half of the Premier League and have an outside chance of a European spot.
Hasenhuttl said: 'We have this season only two (sacked managers) in the Premier League so it is not so much and I cannot compare my situation to his. It is completely different.
'Last year he was with, I don’t want to say no names, but a young team, that reached the Champions League this season.
'When you sign so many good players for so much money it is normal that you come a little bit under pressure earlier, the expectations are higher but what is in the end the reason why he has no job anymore I don’t know and I don’t want to discuss to be honest.'
Lampard is expected to be replaced by German manager Thomas Tuchel, who was sacked by Paris Saint-Germain in late December.
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