EPL: Lampard defends harsh fines, punishment on Chelsea players

EPL: Lampard defends harsh fines, punishment on Chelsea players

Chelsea boss, Frank Lampard has defended the harsh fine and punishment he imposed on his payers.

The Englishman said that he is not taking a dictatorial approach to management after his list of newly imposed fines for the Chelsea squad were leaked last week.

Players who report late for training will pay an eye-watering £20,000 fine, while there are hefty punishments for phones interrupting team meetings or players travelling in the wrong attire.

Lampard revealed that he consulted captain Cesar Azpilicueta on the list of new punishments.
He also noted that discipline and respect within his squad is vital to its success.

"I can understand it might sound harsh," Lampard said during prematch press briefing.

"It's not harsh if you're not late. It's nothing.

"That's one thing. I think we put in the discipline for one reason. My only concern when that came out was it makes me look like trying to be Mr Tough Guy. I'm not.

"We spoke with the players and I gave the list to Azpilicueta when we set out the fines. In fact I was asking him if there were any areas you see because I wanted to know what happened last year, whether the players were happy, were they not.

"That came into the picture as well so it's certainly a bit of a joint effort. Maybe the numbers were chosen by myself to a degree.

"I do think discipline is an important thing and I'm very happy to work with the players. I want to be successful. I expect them to look after each other on the pitch and when they train, so I expect them to respect each other in terms of turning up.

"If you talk about coming late to training, we arrive at 10 and we start training at 11. If you're late for training you're like an hour and 15 minutes late without any excuse, that's quite a big deal if you're preparing for a game against Man City on the next day.

"I know the fines are relative, people can have their own mind. But the players are certainly big in the setting up of that and I think it's important to have discipline in the workplace.

"They were part of the process. I'm not here to be a dictator and make things difficult. We're here to be successful as a football club and discipline's part of it and I worked with them in putting it together."

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