English club Chelsea announced on Thursday that its former player and coach, Frank Lampard, will manage the London team until the end of the season, the time for his management to find a lasting solution after the Graham Potter fiasco. Iconic player of the club from 2001 to 2014, which earned him a place in the Hall of Fame (Hall of Fame) of the Premier League, then his coach from July 2019 to January 2021, Lampard will already be the third coach of the Blues this season.
The new American owners, who had bought the club from Roman Abramovich last May, had sacked Thomas Tuchel last August, after only seven matches, to replace him with Graham Potter, as promising as he is inexperienced at this level. Unable to make his mark on a group turned upside down by the 600 million euros spent on the transfer market in summer and winter, very often for young players with high potential, Potter was sacked on Sunday, leaving the club to 11th place in the league, even if he is still in the race for the quarter-finals of the Champions League against Real Madrid.
A gesture towards disgruntled supporters
Eager not to make the same mistakes, Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali, the co-owners of the club, have therefore chosen to give themselves time with this historical figure of the club who should at least appease the supporters, never convinced either by Potter or by the recent management of the club. “We are delighted to welcome Frank back to Stamford Bridge (…), a legend in this club”, explained the two men, quoted in the press release.
“As we continue the meticulous and exhaustive process to find a permanent head coach, we give the club and the fans a clear and stable plan for the remainder of the season,” they stressed. “We want to give ourselves every chance of succeeding and Frank has all the characteristics and qualities required to lead us to the finish line,” they further pleaded. “It was a fairly easy decision (to make) for me. It’s my club (…) I have a lot of emotions and feelings that connect me to the club”, for his part admitted the main interested party in conference Press.
At 44, Lampard knows he still has a lot to prove as a coach. After his mixed experience at Chelsea, which he led to Champions League qualification despite a recruitment ban and the FA Cup final, his second season was much more difficult, until his dismissal in January 2021.
Waiting for Nagelsmann or Enrique?
He then bounced back to Everton where he was appointed at the end of January 2022, saving fellow club Liverpool from relegation. But until his dismissal last January, his 44 matches at the head of the Toffees, punctuated by 24 defeats and 8 draws for only 12 victories, had not left a great memory on the banks of the Mersey. The favorites to take the job permanently are rather called Julian Nagelsmann, recently sacked by Bayern Munich and replaced by … Thomas Tuchel, or Luis Enrique.
But the precedent of Roberto di Matteo, a former Chelsea player who took over the reins of the club in March 2012 for the end of the season, before winning the Champions League and being confirmed in his post, hangs in everyone’s mind. , including that of Lampard, who played in his team. “It won’t be my decision anyway, so I don’t want to project myself towards that (…) The most important thing for me is to leave that aside and stay focused on the immediate job”, tempered Lampard who knows that the Madrid ogre of Real, defending champion, will stand in his way on Wednesday.