Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has insisted that the club made the right decision by allowing Frank Lampard to leave as a free agent this summer. The Portuguese boss believes that if the Blues had decided to keep the 36-year-old it would have hindered the development of younger players at Stamford Bridge.

The former England midfielder left Chelsea in the summer as the club’s all-time leading goalscorer before signing with the Major League Soccer franchise, New York City FC.

Lampard was then loaned out to NYCFC’s sister club, Manchester City, where he has notched six goals and two assists in 14 appearances in all competitions.

This weekend, the midfielder scored the decisive goal during City’s 1-0 victory over Leicester City this weekend at the King Power Stadium. The victory kept Manchester City within three points of league-leading Chelsea.

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Speaking ahead of his side’s Capital One Cup quarter-final match against Derby County (to be shown live on beIN SPORTS and DishWorld at 2:45pm ET Tuesday for viewers in the USA), Mourinho insisted that the club made the right decision by letting the Blues legend leave Stamford Bridge this summer.

“It’s his life, nothing to do with us. He left Chelsea as a free agent and chooses his life, we can’t complain about it. That’s football,” Mourinho said.

“My view is that when you want to look forward, look to the future and have people like [Cesc] Fabregas and [Nemanja] Matic and Jeremie Boga [Chelsea U-21 midfielder] which are the next ten years of the club.”

“The project is to prepare for the next ten years, not for the next year – we made the right decision.”

“You can argue ‘You have John Terry and Didier Drogba’.”

“Different.”

“Drogba is a striker that is coming to help and support the team.”

“John Terry is the best central defender in English football and it doesn’t matter how old he is.”

“The nucleus of the team has to be developed and to have a big player like Frank we would have to stop the development of the other guys.”

Programming note: Derby County vs. Chelsea will be shown LIVE on beINSPORTS and DishWorld starting at 2:30pm EST on Tuesday.