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Chelsea manager Frank Lampard described the rebuild of his team as a work in progress after they crashed out of the Champions League last-16 following a 7-1 aggregate defeat by Germany’s Bayern Munich.
Chelsea’s record scorer Lampard enjoyed a trophy-laden spell with them as a player, winning the Premier League and Champions League among other crowns, but suggested that they needed to recruit the right names to reach that level again.
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“In the last 20 years we had players, teams with prime [Eden] Hazard, [Diego] Costa, [Petr] Cech, [John] Terry and [Didier] Drogba,” Lampard told BT Sport following their 4-1 defeat at Bayern in Saturday’s second leg.
“Competing for the Premier League year on year, getting to finals and semifinals regularly. We know that’s not the case now … It’s not a slight work in progress. It’s a work in progress. It’s not the norm for Chelsea.”
Lampard, who guided Chelsea to fourth in the Premier League and the final of the FA Cup in his first season in charge, said he would look to further bolster his squad in the close season.
Chelsea have already spent big to bring in attackers Hakim Ziyech and Timo Werner.
“We’ll look at that, because that’s our job,” Lampard added. “From having a transfer ban [last year] you feel we’ve missed where other clubs spent and improved … recruitment is a huge part of this game.
“Nights like this in a footballing sense, show me a lot, tell me a lot.”