Manchester United legend Gary Neville believes that unfulfilled expectations of immediate results ended up costing Frank Lampard his job at Chelsea.
The former Blues midfielder was sacked on Monday morning following a run of results which included five defeats from their last eight Premier League outings.
Big-money summer arrivals such as Kai Havertz and Timo Werner have flattered to deceive at Stamford Bridge so far, and Neville thinks that a failure to secure "instant results" after a £220m spending spree was the nail in the coffin for Lampard.
Speaking to Sky Sports News, Neville said: "I'm not wholly surprised, as much as I would've been this time last week. There were rumours starting to surface towards the end of the week that Frank was coming under pressure.
"When that happens at Chelsea, the end is pretty much a consistent one whereby the rumours start to come out and then it happens pretty quickly. I was a little surprised when I heard the news given that Frank has only had a short amount of time with a new group of players, but he was given a period last year when the club were under a transfer embargo, and that almost shielded him.
"He did a great job in that period but the minute the club started spending the money that they did in the summer and brought those players in, it was always going to bring a lot more expectation. We know what happens at Chelsea when more expectations come, in the sense that they want instant results.
"With one of the biggest budgets in the league and the biggest transfer spends comes greater expectations, and at Chelsea over many years their approach to managers has been very consistent. Frank knew that when he took the job.
"I don't think he'd want anyone to feel sorry for him. He'd just want an understanding of the fact that he went into a club that has always been like this with managers and he knew that he would've had to succeed straight away.
"The inconsistent form and results of the last six weeks has cost him probably a lot sooner than he would've imagined because of the fact that he's a club legend. My problem with Chelsea in the past is that it's always felt that the players have stuck the knife into the manager at times; I would hope that it's not happened on this occasion."
Chelsea are reportedly set to appoint former Paris Saint-Germain boss Thomas Tuchel as Lampard's replacement in the coming days.
Ben Knapton
