Abdoulaye Doucoure does not remember former Everton manager Frank Lampard fondly, saying he was not treated fairly by the Chelsea legend and was not sad to see the back of him.
Lampard had an underwhelming spell in charge of the Toffees from January 2022 – January 2023, winning just 12 of his 44 games in charge.
Doucoure has played regularly for Everton since joining from Watford in 2020, but he found himself down the pecking order under the former England midfielder.
The 32-year-old feels Lampard made an error by ousting him from the first team and not giving him a chance to shine even when the team was struggling.
The Mali international reveals that the pair had a public argument in front of his teammates which led to him being completely ousted from the squad, but that situation didn’t last long as Lampard lost his job soon after.
”I think he made a mistake with me to be honest, I am a hard working guy and a humble person, I work hard in training – obviously he can make a choice, I never contest the choice a manager makes,’ Doucoure said on The Overlap Breakdown Podcast.
‘Sometimes you have to be fair and I don’t think he was fair with me, leaving me on the bench for so many games and not giving me my chance, it just upset me with him.
‘After a home game, we had a big argument between me and him, I was not happy and I told him the truth because I am honest and he didn’t like it,.
‘The day after they said you cannot stay with the team, he said he felt disrespected by me in front of the other players, and said you need to train with the Under-21s or train alone.
‘I said “I am going to train alone” because I know how to look after myself, luckily it was not long because I think he was sacked a week after.’
Speaking about his time at Goodison Park last year, Lampard told the Stick to Football podcast: ‘At Everton in the end, there were a lot of issues in and around it – we all know that there was an issue between the fans and the board at the time.
‘I was on the phone a lot in the evenings, trying to connect with the owner, chairman, CEO, then go in and do the day job the next day. During this time, I found it an intense period.
‘I learnt very quickly in my head, what the issues were there, and they were not my issues to solve long term. I don’t want to sound like I palmed them off, it’s just that you want results, but at the same time if you go into a place where there are a lot of problems here, can I turn it around in nine games when motivation has just gone down?
‘I came to peace with that a little bit – I wanted to win games because it was my reputation on the line, but at the same time I wasn’t so bad. Probably at the end of Everton would be the biggest spell where it’s been a challenge, but it makes you a better person.’
