Frank Lampard SACKED! | His final Everton press conference following West Ham defeat!

Disappointed in the result, particularly when we had major control of the game in between both boxes. To lose 2-0 is obviously disappointing, but we had a lot of possession. The game went a lot of the way we wanted it to go, particularly up to the 20th minute or so. The stadium was quiet, we had the ball and it came down to probably an issue for us recently if we're not going to be clinical enough, not dynamic enough, not tough enough in the final third. You always have a possibility, particularly with a good team like West Ham, with good individuals, of conceding and it changes the feeling of the game. No, not to me. Whether it should or not, it's not for me to second guess. I've been asked this question a lot now and I know there's things going on at the club, so I understand why. But it's never been of a consequence to me whether I'm an owner or a chairman or a board member at the club or at the game. I spent 18 months at Chelsea and they only didn't come to one competitive game. It's not about that for me. You can read into it what you want, but let's have no concern. I'm not talking away from it. It's just not the relevant thing for me. I don't know the first part. It's not for me to guess what he's thinking about the game. It's the first I've heard of that quote. It would be hard for me to sit here and say about the right direction in terms of recent results. I've said it before, before games recently. We stayed up by the skin of our teeth last year. We were five points shy of safety with not many games to go. I said the other day that I think we'll maybe stay where we are. Someone sort of gave me a second question and went, is that competitive enough talk as such? But for me, if you're in a club where over recent years the club's moved downwards with serious investment, the environment now, the conditions now are that we don't have that investment and we sold our number nine and we're trying to rebuild. That doesn't mean that straight away you should start climbing stairs straight away. It means that you're going to have to dig in as a club. And I'm prepared to dig in. Nah, because it comes with the territory. It's very easy. There's two sides to me. Firstly, I think we're very proud and lucky to have our jobs. There's a lot of perks to our jobs. There's also a lot of sacrifice. One of the sacrifices are people that are sort of hidden behind a phone or any kind of outlet can say stuff because it gives them a good feeling. And people like that attention to it. So the less you can hear of that as a manager or the less it affects you, the better. Because it means nothing. It means nothing for me to do a job. So I'm fine with that for the modern day. It's been interesting for me because I would hate to sound like I'm sitting here saying that my job is more difficult than anyone else's because I think you can speak to any manager in the Premier League or the Championship or Div 1 or Div 2, particularly managers in Div 1 or Div 2 that are dealing with a lot of difficulties in their jobs with minimal budgets or whatever, all those things. I'm not going to cry about my job. So it's challenging, yes, because every job is. Do I try and do my best in every aspect? Yes. I don't feel like it distracts me because my job has to be, I have to be the first person that can focus on the job. If you're asking about the players, then that may be a different question because I played here as a young boy. I played for England in tough times. I was fortunate at Chelsea, there weren't so many. But tough times personally, and I understand the difficulties that this game can give you. People say just have a tough skin, you know, like you should be fine with it. It doesn't work that simply. So I understand if the players are affected by it. I also understand the passion of the fans. I also understand that. I'm not here to tell anyone about the bigger questions that are going on at the moment because I've been here a year and I try and focus on the football. I think when you, the game was maybe a decent example of it today. Not all games are the same, but we need to try and help the squad and bring in players probably at the top end of the pitch to be competitive and to have an instinct and give us more goals. Because I think the league is moving forward and a lot of other teams around us are making those moves. And of course we're working hard to make those moves. I'd hate to sound like I'm saying that nothing's being done. It's not an easy market. Our budget is very different to a lot of the other teams around us. It was last summer, it is now. So I suppose my main focus is to concentrate and work on the players that I've got. And I'm absolutely not hanging anyone out to dry for losing a game at West Ham. When I say we weren't clinical enough in the first half to today, it's because that's my job to say it and my job to try and coach it. But we want to help the squad. I think as a coach, in possession the idea is to try and get your team up and around the final third as much as you can. Today we were there a lot. And that sort of midfield area where it's like, can we attack the line, can we be dynamic, can we make crosses, can we get on the end of crosses. Those things you can work off in training. Ideas of what you want to do, talk about them a lot. Obviously on pitch that needs to happen. I have the same question all the time and I think you're only close when it's done. So we're not there on anything. I have a lot of conversations with the board and the owners. Of course it's my job and I'm a manager that tries to keep those communications. I know how important it is as a manager if you don't keep those. It's not my point to divulge them. And I will certainly not use anything like that as an excuse as to why we don't engage.