Chelsea manager Frank Lampard stuck it to Raheem Sterling after the Manchester City midfielder complained about how easy the role of white managers in the English Premier League.
“I think in the actual case of managers, I think he got it, from my point of view, slightly wrong, because it felt like a very casual comparison,” Lampard said.
“Because if you compare opportunities and pathways of individual managers, you can compare myself, you can compare Steven, you can compare Sol, who by the way did an incredible job at Macclesfield and the job now at Southend is tough, it’s one all of us would find difficult to do.
“Then you can compare Ashley Cole who finished his career last year with me at Derby, and is working away here [as Chelsea academy coach] with me and doing a great job, and I think he’s going to be successful whatever he wants to do. So I think it’s very hard to make that comparison from the outside.” Lampard added.
Speaking at Newsnight earlier this month, Sterling has demanded black managers in football get equal opportunities and he asked why Lampard and Steven Gerrard have landed top managerial jobs, while their former team-mates Sol Campbell and Ashley Cole are forced to start at the lower league.
“There’s something like 500 players in the Premier League and a third of them are black and we have no representation in the hierarchy, no representation of us in the coaching staffs,” Sterling said.
“There’s Steven Gerrard, your Frank Lampards, you have your Sol Campbells and you have your Ashley Cole. All had great careers, all played for England. At the same time, they’ve all respectfully done their coaching badges to coach at the highest level and the two that haven’t been given the right opportunities are the two black former players.” Sterling added.
