Frank Lampard has credited Jose Mourinho as the manager who made him believe in himself, adding the former Chelsea boss can inspire Tottenham s players to become winners.
Mourinho was appointed as Spurs manager on Wednesday, 11 hours after the club announced the departure of Mauricio Pochettino following a dismal start to the Premier League season.
Lampard played under Mourinho across two separate spells at Chelsea, winning the Premier League in back-to-back campaigns between 2004 and 2006.
Asked what Mourinho will bring to Tottenham s dressing room, Chelsea head coach Lampard cited the Portuguese s ability to instill self-belief in his squads, which he feels will be key to transforming Spurs fortunes.
What Jose did when he came to the club was give me a real self-confidence. He has a lot of that himself, we all see that, but he s got a really good way of transmitting that to the players, Lampard told a news conference.
He took me as a bit of a project because I think I was slightly within myself at that point in terms of how I believe in myself, and he gave me great encouragement and bonded a real team spirit at the club where we hadn t won anything and he wanted to make us winners and we really bought into that.
I m sure it s a different situation now but that was my experience of it. He will look to inspire the players that he works with now as we all do. That s part of his job, out on the training pitch and then some of it is how much you can do man-to-man.
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Lampard left Chelsea in 2014, joining Manchester City who the Blues face on Saturday for a season before heading to MLS club New York City.
The midfielder scored a late equaliser in a 1-1 draw between City and Chelsea, with Mourinho subsequently claiming Lampard s love story with the Blues had ended.
At the time I didn t feel it was quite right, I have to say that. Maybe directly after match can affect the comment, Lampard said when asked about Mourinho s comments.
The bigger picture on that one is that I think the love story or not is always decided by the fans and the club.
I think it s proven now I m here managing the club. I think a lot of people understood how I feel about Chelsea, always did, always will do, regardless of the year at City. I think it was more a comment made with emotion.
I think the reaction of me going to City, which is something I was concerned about after 13 years here, I wondered at 36 whether the year there was something I should take on because of what I feel about this club and then the professional side of it, the challenge of it and the period I had where I wasn t going to be playing before going to New York all came together and made me take a decision which was quite tough at the time.
Lampard, however, stated his time at City has proved a crucial experience.
To have a year in Manchester, in terms of what I m doing now, was perfect for me in terms of what I m doing now because it opened my eyes to another club, another structure, another dressing room, another coaching philosophy, he said.
It helped shape what came next. I can t look back on my career with any negative feelings, even about leaving Chelsea.
