The ex-England midfielder has turned the Sky Blues into genuine promotion contenders despite the pressure of succeeding a club legend in Mark Robins.
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Your brain still has to do a double-take when thinking of Frank Lampard as a manager rather than as the all-conquering midfielder he was in a previous life. It's almost as if those are two different people entirely.
For much of Lampard's life, he's inhabited a glaring spotlight, the son of a West Ham legend, the nephew of their manager when he first broke through as a player in his own right. Even after his glittering playing career came to an end, he was quickly thrust into the trials and tribulations of management, including two stints at his beloved Chelsea.
Nowadays, you can find Lampard at the far more modest Coventry City, where he is quickly and quietly re-establishing his legend. The Sky Blues' run of nine wins from their last 10 Championship games is their best league run .
Lampard is saving his reputation and is now looking like a promising managerial prospect again. So how did we get here? And did we perhaps misjudge who he is as a coach?
Follow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱Getty Images SportUnderrated job at Derby
Having officially retired from football in February 2017, Lampard immediately turned to TV punditry to extend his stint in the game. Nevertheless, it was clear he longed for more.
"I have had a great year in the media. It's been great because I have had one foot in and one foot out and I needed that after playing. But the pull of management has always been great for me and it was only a matter of time with the right opportunity. This feels right and the rest is up to me," he said after being appointed as the manager of Derby County in May 2018.
The Rams had just missed out on promotion to the Premier League having lost to Fulham in the play-off semi-finals. They could smell the top flight, but trouble was brewing behind the scenes. Soaring costs and a quite literally unbelievable wage bill fit threatened to derail their aspirations (and this would indeed ultimately lead to their downfall by the time Wayne Rooney took the reins a few years later). Much of the squad, including Golden Boot-winner Matej Vydra, had to be turned over, and Lampard turned to the loan market to fix the mess.
His connections with Chelsea allowed Derby to bring in Mason Mount and Fikayo Tomori, while Harry Wilson arrived from Liverpool. Two new strikers in Martyn Waghorn and Jack Marriott were acquired on permanent deals to make up for the shortfall of Vydra.
Derby finished sixth and qualified for the play-offs once again, where they were pitted against Marcelo Bielsa's Leeds United in a modern day reimagining of following the 'Spygate' scandal midway through the season – a scout from Leeds was caught trying to get an unauthorised glimpse of a Derby training session. The Rams lost the first leg 1-0 at Pride Park, before prevailing in a play-off classic at Elland Road, winning 4-2 on the night. Leeds' chant of 'stop crying, Frank Lampard' was turned on its head, and he himself was filmed singing it in the dressing room celebrations.
Alas, Derby were beaten 2-1 by a similarly budding Aston Villa side in the final, with Jack Grealish and Tammy Abraham the headline names for Dean Smith's men. But Lampard had done enough across the season to show he could steady a ship all the while integrating youth and implementing an entertaining brand of football.
AdvertisementGetty ImagesChelsea's youth revolution
Lampard's chance at his dream job came only 12 months into his managerial career, as Chelsea came calling when Maurizio Sarri decided to leave for Juventus, and he gladly accepted their offer.
Just as was the case at Derby, things were far from rosy back at Stamford Bridge. The club had been placed under a transfer embargo for two windows, and star player Eden Hazard had agreed to join Real Madrid. The squad was a mix of eras, with the old guard featuring N'Golo Kante, Cesar Azpilicueta, Jorginho and Mateo Kovacic being gelled with the new generation of Reece James, Christian Pulisic and blasts-from-the-contextual-past Mount, Tomori and Abraham.
Pre-season expectations varied, with some tipping the Blues to finish as low as 10th, that Lampard's first year should have been considered a free-hit. That they came fourth, reached the FA Cup final and were only knocked out of the Champions League by eventual winners Bayern Munich in the last 16 was a small triumph. Once more, Lampard had united a club with his willingness to play attacking football and promote youth. This achievement has been lost to history because of what happened next.
Getty Images SportShown up by Tuchel?
Chelsea returned to type when their transfer ban was lifted, spending around £200 million on the marquee signings of Kai Havertz, Timo Werner, Hakim Ziyech, Ben Chilwell and Edouard Mendy. By the winter, they were top of the Premier League and into the knockout stages of the Champions League. Everything was rosy until they hit a bump in the road.
A run of two wins in eight was the final nail in the coffin for Lampard, whose strained relations across the club made his position untenable. He was said to be distant with a fair few players, while his decisions to freeze out Antonio Rudiger and send Tomori to AC Milan have aged worse than a pint of milk sitting in the Sahara sunshine.
Thomas Tuchel was drafted in as Lampard's replacement in January 2021, and within six months, he had made a naive and incompetent Chelsea the champions of Europe, boasting one of the best defences – built around the previously maligned Rudiger, no less – seen in years, reminiscent of Jose Mourinho's first stint in west London.
Lampard can take some credit for his work developing the likes of Mount and James, who were adored by Tuchel to no end, but that's where the matter starts and finishes.
AFPMixed Everton spell
By January 2022, Lampard had almost been pigeonholed as a firefighter. This time around, it was Everton dialling 999, looking to quickly reverse the damage left by arsonist Rafa Benitez, with the Toffees alarmingly sliding towards relegation.
Things got worse before they got better at Goodison Park, with many of Lampard's early positive results coming by the skin of his team's collective backside. There was, however, an appreciation of his honesty and charisma, particularly when contrasted to the doom-and-gloom of Liverpool legend Benitez.
Everton managed to secure safety on the penultimate day of the season, coming from behind to beat Crystal Palace to spark a pitch invasion. Though the start to the following season was so abominable it led to Lampard's dismissal in January, they were nonetheless grateful for his efforts during a troubled period in the club's history.