Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho feels that the Blues were right in their decision to release Frank Lampard this summer, despite the former England midfielder being in excellent form at Manchester City this season.
After leaving Chelsea, the 36-year-old, who is the Blues all time goalscorer with 211 goals in all competitions, joined newly formed MLS side New York City.
But since the new Major League Soccer season is yet to start, Lampard was loaned to New York City's sister club Manchester City, where he is currently doing very well, already scoring 6 goals in all competition this season.
Although there were suggestions of Chelsea being very foolish to let a player like Lampard leave for free, Mourinho feels that the Blues made the right decision as, according to him, the midfielder continued stay would hamper the progress of upcoming players.
"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 (a U21 midfielder), which are the next 10 years of the club," Mourinho told ESPN.
"The project is to prepare for the next 10 years, not for the next year. We made the right decision."
However, Mourinho says that it's not the same in case of John Terry and Didier Drogba.
"You can argue 'You have John Terry and Didier Drogba'. Different," he added. "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 stop the development of the other guys."
Finally, on being asked whether he was angry at Lampard for joining Chelsea's Premier League title rivals Manchester City, Mourinho replied: "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."
