Frank Lampard has admitted the so-called ‘Golden Generation’ should have performed better for England.

The 34-year-old has won every honour in club football with Chelsea, yet international silverware has eluded him despite 28 goals in 95 England appearances since his debut in 1999.

“We’ve all performed in the Premier League and Champions League,” said Lampard.

“As a group and individually, I’ll hold my hands up and say at World Cups I haven’t performed, certain England games I haven’t performed.

“It certainly isn’t for the want of trying. But when you look at the end and you say, ‘Yes, I’ve ticked all those boxes’, the international one, none of us have ticked it.”

Lampard, who is in Roy Hodgson’s squad for the upcoming friendlies against Republic of Ireland and Brazil, also admitted he has enjoyed international football more as he has matured.

He told TalkSPORT: “I’ve grown more in love with England as I’ve got older. When I was in the middle of my England career and took a bit of stick, I didn’t enjoy it.

“As I’ve got older, I think my appreciation of playing for my country has risen — it doesn’t go on forever — and I really enjoy it at the minute.”

Lampard has signed a new one-year deal at Stamford Bridge and is looking forward to the imminent arrival of Jose Mourinho.

He said: “He has a presence and an aura and a way with people.

“He galvanises people. His own self-confidence reflects back on his teams. He did that with me.

“Tactically he’s fantastic. He’s very astute. As a team he sets you up brilliantly.

“But what he does is he gets the best out of players and gets this togetherness that I’d never known until he came to the club and I haven’t seen it again since then.

“Mourinho was the best. For me, he was. He brought my confidence to a level it had never been.”

Meanwhile, Petr Cech has urged Chelsea to install their new permanent manager as soon as possible to give the club their best chance of mounting a title challenge next season.

Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Everton ensured they secured third place and automatic qualification for the Champions League group stages.But next season the club hope to be in a much stronger position in the Premier League title race.

Outgoing coach Rafael Benitez revealed last week the club will spend £100million on new signings. When asked about the managerial situation, the goalkeeper said: “The earlier he can be here, he can start work on things and not leave it for the last moment. You give the new boss the time to prepare things.

“Every summer is important. If you have a bad summer it can have consequences for the whole season. If you don’t get people to rest and to have a very good pre-season, you can start the season chasing.

“This is not an ideal situation. Every summer at a club is important because you have some changes in the squad. We will have a new manager and have to prepare for the oncoming season.”