Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho has warned Frank Lampard he will struggle to find a way of improving on his current crop of Chelsea players in the January transfer window.

Lampard has presided over an impressive start to his first season in charge at Stamford Bridge, despite having been prevented from bolstering his squad during the summer.

After CAS reduced Chelsea’s punishment for breaching regulations relating to the purchase of youth players, Lampard will have the opportunity to spend next month but Mourinho, now Tottenham manager, believes that comes with its own risks, report the Metro.

He said: “I’m not worried with that. First of all, I’m not looking to the distance we have to Chelsea. Between us and Chelsea there are still two or three teams, so you cannot look so high and so far in this moment.

“The second situation is for me that it’s not easy to get better players than they have – they have very good players.

“I don’t think even with a ban or even with a hypothetical multi-million budget to spend, I’m not very, very sure they can get much better players than they have.”

Mourinho, himself, will likely jump at the chance to spend once the window re-opens, particularly in light of Wednesday’s disappointing performance when he surrendered his 100% start to life as Spurs boss at Old Trafford.