by 
Frank Lampard took over as Derby County manager in 2018, just over a year after ending his playing days, and embarked on a managerial career that propelled him to the before – but not in all the places he might have expected.
Six years later, he returned to the Championship, as if dismissed at the start. For many managers, the prospect of Coventry City, one of the Premier League’s greatest long-term exiles, would be a great place to get a chance, let alone a putative reset. But this is Lampard, a giant of English football as a player and former manager of Chelsea. This was the Chelsea team that won the Champions League in 2021 under the leadership of his successor Thomas Tuchel. There was the drama of Everton’s survival in the Premier League under his leadership two years ago, then the doomed interim at Chelsea.
Yet after all that, it is Coventry that appears to be the defining moment of Lampard’s coaching career. A period of stability for him, if such a thing exists during the 46 penalty shootout games of the Championship season, is long overdue. He experienced a series of flare-ups during his career and came out a little burned. But it’s still about Lampard, the rational, clear-headed guy sitting in the expert chair. The man for whom all the elements were there to succeed in his coaching career. The question now is: can he demonstrate that they are?
Having taken over at Chelsea in 2019, he worked under a Fifa transfer embargo, with the club selling Eden Hazard as well as David Luiz and Gary Cahill in the summer of his arrival. He got the club into the Champions League before it all fell apart the following season at the turn of the year and Tuchel stepped in to make the Lampard era look meager in comparison. At Everton, expectations were higher than the grim battle for 17th place that currently exists, but he made his change. They survived. Then came Chelsea, for the second time – it’s fair to say that most advised him against this misadventure.
It was a difficult and unhappy period, with new ownership struggling, elements of the team – mostly those looking to leave – refusing to comply and fans furious. The main cost, apart from the real cost of the club’s vast spending on players, has been to Lampard’s reputation, and that will have been painful. He should never have taken this position on a temporary basis. A hard lesson to learn.
Some will criticize the fact that Lampard continues to get chances, even though he could have chosen the easier option among the experts. But like many of his peers, he seems determined to put it all back on the line, and that’s to be admired. English football does have a tendency to dismiss managers – particularly English managers – without allowing the crucial lessons learned through adversity to take effect.
At Derby, where he lost a play-off final in 2019, he managed a club that always invested in promotion, whether it could afford it or not. After that, it’s safe to say that Lampard’s jobs have been at the right clubs at the wrong time. Indeed, Chelsea’s first stint could be viewed very differently were it not for what followed for Tuchel’s Chelsea at Porto. Lampard leaves behind a team that remains undefeated in the Champions League, whatever their problems elsewhere.
The latest sacking of the Roman Abramovich era manager was a legacy for a man who, as a player, had survived under so many of his predecessors as Chelsea manager. For the second time in the Championship, Lampard could consider taking things slow. Coventry are unlikely to reach the play-offs this season and the two-and-a-half year contract suggests the club recognizes this.
His England teammates from the previous two decades who now lead the Championship – Tom Cleverley, Michael Carrick, Wayne Rooney, currently in that order in the table – are at different stages of their careers. Getting out of the division is not easy. Indeed, the main challenge is to succeed enough to convince impatient and deficit clubs to accept another season. Especially in a market where unemployed managers far outnumber those who are employed.
In just over 18 months it is likely that the Football Association will be looking for a new England manager, and these four members of the Championship will be of interest, to a greater or lesser extent, to a governing body keen to not having to name another one. foreign national. In this regard, promotion alone cannot be considered the only ambition of Lampard and the others. The FA will be looking for an English manager who has shown sufficient promise – and if he comes with an English playing pedigree, that might just be enough.
Lampard’s playing career was, at its peak, the application of the most astute judgment, natural talent honed by practice and incredible physical durability. The biggest compliment that can be said is that Lampard, the player, made it look easy. There was an understanding of the requirement for consistency spanning many years, something some contemporaries never understood. He was also ruthless. And yet, as he never did as a player, he sometimes seemed unusually vulnerable as a manager.
Coventry offer a slightly off-center chance to put all that experience to good use – and mainly some of the crushing lessons learned as a manager. The name, like that of any famous former player, goes some way in getting the coaching opportunity, but the rest is up to them.
