Lampard: Mourinho and Ancelotti gave me no tips but were supportive during tough times

Everton manager Frank Lampard stressed that his ex-Chelsea bosses Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti were "very supportive" during the Toffees' plight.

Everton flirted with relegation for a long time before pulling off a great escape after coming from behind to beat Crystal Palace 3-2 which guaranteed their place in next season's Premier League.

The Toffees were many peoples' favourites to go down but three second-half goals against Patrick Vieira's Eagles saw them get out of jail.

And in the aftermath of sealing safety, Lampard admitted that Burnley's win over Watford on April 30 was the nadir of his time at the club.

By scoring a vital late winner at Vicarage Road, Mike Jackson's men opened up a a five-point gap to their closest antagonists who followed it up with a 1-0 win of their own over Thomas Tuchel's patchy Blues a day later.

Lampard told Capital Football that on that Saturday at around 5pm realisation set in for the first time that the scale of the task of keeping Everton up was extremely vertiginous.

He said: "I will be honest in the fact that probably that the day before we played Chelsea we watched Burnley win and the gap opened to five points.

"It was one of those real realisations of the situation when reality smashes you in the face.

"And that was the moment that everybody in the club dug in.

"But [I never regretted taking the job] because I am quite tough like that.

"If i take on something and I understand what it is and I understand how tough it might be I can't be the excuse-maker in my own head.

"I just have to think: 'what can I do to make this better?'

"And it's tested me in lots of ways.

"You kind of wonder how many motivational talks you can make to a group of players and what's the balance in all those things.

"And that's been an amazing experience for me so I am thankful for that."

"I am in contact with both [Ancelotti and Mourinho] but they've been supportive for sure and no tips.

"I am not working at their level of manager, they have won a lot as managers but they are respectful and understanding that when you are not in the job, Carlo maybe understands a bit this club, you don't always understand every detail of the squad and what you are fighting against.

"But they've been very supportive."