Frank Lampard is the perfect choice to take Chelsea into new era
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Updated 04/07/2019 at 08:04 GMT
It was one of the most evocative images of an eternal 2018/19 season that is now finally on its last legs.
Chelsea's Frank Lampard (centre), Juan Mata (left), Fernando Torres (right) and their team-mates lift the UEFA Europa League trophy
Image credit: PA Sport
Maurizio Sarri was stood all alone with his head bowed, eyes fixed on his Europa League winners’ medal. His players were nowhere to be seen, engrossed in their own celebrations. Only his assistant Luca Gotti turned, almost apologetically, to offer his congratulations.
Roman Abramovich was at the Olympic Stadium in Baku, seen high-fiving each player as they made their way back to the changing room, but the Russian billionaire will have acknowledged the good and the bad of the club he owns that night.
Emotions had run high on the eve of Chelsea’s Europa League success over Arsenal, with Sarri raging at cameras being turned on as he sought to practice set pieces. But there was nowhere to hide when the ensuing trophy parade after his side’s 4-1 win served to highlight the awkward marriage between the manager and his players.
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Maurizio Sarri's marriage with Chelsea always felt an ill fit
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Chelsea have collected silverware in 11 of the past 15 seasons, but if they were to pick up just one under Frank Lampard over the next four, it will be cherished with greater affection than any other during that time.
When Lampard was appointed Derby boss in May 2018, the former England midfielder's infectious smile in a smart black suit, crisp open-collar shirt and most importantly his words gave the impression of a man who was well-equipped to take the jump into management, and stay there for some time. He told reporters:
I’m excited and nervous, but a good nervous. Having had a long career, I knew the road I wanted to take was towards management.
“Ask any manager and you might say they’re mad because we’re going into this job which is hard but when it’s in you, then it sucks you in.”
Lampard replaced Gary Rowett at Pride Park after a year working as a TV pundit, and 18 months after he began coaching. The club had finished sixth in the Championship. He fended off 19 other applicants for the role to become the Rams’ seventh appointment in just over three years.
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Lampard was unable to take Derby to the Premier League last term
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Lampard is therefore used to turmoil already. For a club that had been perennial underachievers in the English second-tier, flirting with promotion only to fade in the Spring, calling upon a rookie manager was rightly viewed as a risk by supporters and media in the East Midlands.
He banished those doubts by taking Derby to the brink of the Premier League, losing 2-1 to Aston Villa at Wembley last month.
But Lampard actually earned one point fewer than Rowett during his one season in charge, with both finishing 15 points adrift of an automatic promotion place in sixth. Appointing any manager with such little experience is a massive punt by Chelsea, but so too is it a risk from Lampard, leaving a stable position for a club with a history of hiring and firing.
Despite the undoubted romance surrounding his return – tasted fleetingly last October when his Derby side were beaten 3-2 by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in a Carabao Cup tie – there is greater logic, however, to this appointment than the arrival of Sarri 11 months ago.
Lampard won 11 major trophies as a player at the west London club during his 13-year, including three Premier League titles, four FA Cups, two League Cups and the 2012 Champions League title.
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Frank Lampard will be reunited with Petr Cech at Stamford Bridge
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At Chelsea, he becomes the 14th managerial appointment made by Abramovich since he took over the club in 2003, accounting for two spells by Jose Mourinho and Guus Hiddink at the club.
We are used to Chelsea chopping and changing, but with the exception of Avram Grant and Roberto di Matteo, they tend to go for someone with experience, and with a CV full of trophies. Instead, they turn now to a man who has overseen just 57 competitive matches in the dugout.
Lampard spent a considerable amount of time before choosing Derby as the place to cut his teeth in management at a time when his fabled contemporary Steve Gerrard opted to head north of the border to take arguably a more glamorous position at Rangers.
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Rangers manager Steven Gerrard may be tempted to move back south
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Now, Gerrard is being linked with the vacant position at Derby, and despite the obvious lure of returning to the place he calls home, Lampard is an intelligent individual who is only too aware of the poisoned chalice that the Chelsea managerial role has become.
As the first Englishman appointed during Abramovich's 16-year ownership, Lampard will want reassurances over what will be expected from him.
Despite the club’s ongoing transfer ban, the new boss will be desperate to prove himself, and not use his inability to sign players as an excuse; Lampard led Derby to the Championship play-off final in his first season despite relying predominantly on the loan system.
| Chelsea's first six Premier League fixtures | Date |
| Manchester United (A) | August 11 |
| Leicester (H) | August 17 |
| Norwich (A) | August 24 |
| Sheffield United (H) | August 31 |
| Wolves (A) | September 14 |
| Liverpool (H) | September 21 |
His understanding of Chelsea, those 648 appearances and status as the club’s record scorer with 211 goals, means fans are instantly on his side, even before the restrictions in the transfer market are considered.
Chelsea director Marina Granovskaia would not have looked far beyond these two factors, and his understanding of the players in the current squad, before formalising the approach.
Lampard arrives at a time when Chelsea have redoubled efforts to get their house in order; Eden Hazard’s dream move to Real Madrid has become a reality for good money, and the arrival of Petr Cech as Technical and Performance Advisor brings a wealth of football knowledge at boardroom level.
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Marina Granovskaia has secured a major coup in convincing Lampard to return
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Ask any Chelsea fan, and they will tell you they just want their club back.
The last Englishman to manage a ‘Top Six’ Premier League team was Tim Sherwood back in December 2013, when he spent six months in charge of Tottenham. But Lampard will be fearless as he gets to work back in familiar surroundings.
Last October, before facing Chelsea, he said: “Of course, I want to manage at the top, but it would be stupid to look so far ahead of myself.”
Fast-forward eight months, and the reality of being offered the chance to manage Chelsea appears to have proven too big a temptation to resist.
On Friday morning, Lampard's wife Christine Bleakley posted a video of her husband from their holiday in the south of France a day after his 41st birthday in a bar accompanied by friends playing The Clash's hit single "Should I Stay or Should I Go".
But Chelsea had nowhere else to really look, and nor did they really need to. Perhaps by his own admission, Lampard has been offered the Chelsea sooner than he might have hoped.
It remains a bold, romantic appointment, but the circumstances surrounding Lampard's arrival make it a risk worth taking.
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