FRANK LAMPARD'S FIRING SHOWS THE DANGER OF FAST-TRACKING EX-STARS TO MANAGEMENT
Sean O'Conor
"He is an important icon of this great club and his status here remains undiminished."
Thus spake Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich about his former manager Frank Lampard, encapsulating the problem with his recruitment in the first place.
For the Russian oligarch to issue a press release, something big must have happened at the Bridge. Jose Mourinho did not get one from the boss either time he was fired and nor did Roberto Di Matteo when he brought back their one and only Champions League trophy.
Press requests for interviews have always fallen on deaf ears. Abramovich speaking was almost akin to Japanese Emperor Hirohito breaking his silence in 1945 to announce his nation's surrender.
Lampard was a club legend and therein lies the rub. Chelsea succumbed to temptation in handing the reins over to a coach with a paucity of experience (one season in the second tier) because he was their beloved former warrior.
Whatever good work Lampard had done in promoting academy talent like Billy Gilmour and Mason Mount was more than undone by dispiriting defeats to their close rivals and a miserable run of two wins in eight before the axe fell.
At the halfway stage, this season's title race looks very open with a large pack of clubs in the hunt so the Blues' slide to ninth place in early 2021 was extremely worrying for the club's owner. Abramovich wants to be sure of Champions League qualification given his shuddering outlay of £222 million over the summer.
When your team is clearly struggling, firing the first team coach is the traditional response, so there should be no shock Lampard got the heave-ho.
Any attempt to assess his tenure as Chelsea manager revolves around the fact his aura dazzled so many and clouded their judgement.
Just look at the Lampard banners inside the stadium: "Super Frankie Lampard", "In Frank We Trust" and "Forever a Blue, Forever a Legend" etc.
Being the club's all-time record goalscorer was reason enough for the adulation, but Lampard's career also coincided with the historical mediocrities from West London becoming a superclub.
The Essex-born midfielder won it all with Chelsea - the Champions League, Europa League, FA Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup.
A love of tribal history is rightly a big part of being a supporter, but staying loyal to the heroes of the past has its pitfalls.
As Lampard was making good progress in his inaugural managerial season with Derby, the idea of him taking over at Stamford Bridge quickly caught fire and got out of control. Abramovic succumbed, put the call in to Valhalla and everyone at Stamford Bridge salivated.
He was not the first owner to do so. The problem is, it almost never works. For every Johann Cruyff and Pep Guardiola there is Alan Shearer at Newcastle, Graeme Souness at Liverpool, Ossie Ardiles at Tottenham and Stuart Pearce at Nottingham Forest, all of whom fell short on their former stomping grounds.
A Championship playoff final defeat to Aston Villa in your first coaching campaign was a great start to a career but no reliable preparation for a job as big as Chelsea.
Lampard's confident public relations and legendary status papered over the obvious cracks in his appointment but his lack of experience told after a year and a half at the helm.
Sympathy for him is natural - 18 months is probably not enough time to turn a team into world beaters and he rightly stressed how young they were and lacking in experience (without mentioning their coach was as well).
It was just a foolhardy appointment in the first place. A debut day 0-4 loss to Manchester United should have sounded the alarm bells but no, the devout loyalty to the legend was ubiquitous.
But look at the bare facts - a summer spree the sort of which Real Madrid or PSG engage in left the team just above mid-table in the Premier League and big money imports Kai Havertz and Timo Werner were shadows of the players they were last season.
A bloated squad without midfield creators, a vulnerability to counter-attacks and set pieces and defeats to their closest rivals was not the stuff of a top four finish, let alone of Lampard's legend.
Add to that Lampard had the worst points-per-match record of any Blues manager under Abramovich and there can be no argument to the logic of firing him.
- Avram Grant - 2.31 in 32 matches
- Jose Mourinho - 2.19 in 212
- Antonio Conte - 2.14 in 76
- Carlo Ancelotti - 2.07 in 76
- Rafael Benitez - 1.96 in 26
- Luiz Felipe Scolari - 1.96 in 25
- Guus Hiddink - 1.94 in 34
- Maurizio Sarri - 1.89 in 38
- Roberto Di Matteo - 1.83 in 23
- Claudio Ranieri - 1.82 in 146
- Andre Villas-Boas - 1.70 in 27
- Frank Lampard - 1.67 in 57
Oligarch owners demand payback for their playthings and Lampard just did not deliver.
He also had 57 matches in charge which puts him in the top half of Abramovich coaches for longevity, so the counter-argument that he did not have enough time is rather ropey.
What is really fascinating about that table above though is that the man in first place Avram Grant, was never popular with the fans.
The Israeli coach got within a John Terry slip of giving Chelsea their first Champions League trophy in 2008, within two points of the Premier League title and never lost a home game, but sustained disrespect from many corners and even anti-semitic abuse from a hardcore, despite the fact their club's success has been down to a Jewish owner.
Lampard's cult with the supporters was akin to a populist politician who has the feel-good factor in abundance but whose policies are actually damaging the country - of which there is no shortage of examples from recent history.
It was almost as if Blues fans were in denial or afraid to admit the obvious - that Lampard was not the messiah and like many a mistaken voter they had suffered from blind faith.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, currently riding high with Manchester United, is another former club legend who has been tipped for the sack at times, but had much more experience in the dug-out before taking a top job.
Moving straight from retirement aged 35 to training Man Utd's reserves for two and a half years, Solskjaer then managed Molde for three seasons, Cardiff City for nine months and then Molde for another three. Those extra years have made all the difference.
Mikel Arteta
Mikel Arteta at Arsenal is another man compared to Lampard, struggling to make headway with Arsenal.
Three and half years as assistant to Guardiola at Manchester City was his managerial CV before taking over at Ashburton Grove and that time spent beside a genuine master of the modern game seems to have given him the edge over his Chelsea equivalent.
Unlike Lampard, who took two years' break after retirement, Arteta moved straight into coaching.
Perhaps Arsenal's owners are a little less demanding of instant success as well, given they laid out £78 million in the last window, about a third of Chelsea's splurge, and are sticking by their man, conscious of the fact the Gunners have been struggling to rebuild since Arsene Wenger departed.
Steven Gerrard
The last comparison would be Steven Gerrard, for so long Lampard's midfield partner for England. Gerrard also went straight into coaching after retirement and after a year with Liverpool's U-18 side took the Rangers job in June 2018.
In Glasgow, Gerrard has a 65% win rate after 150 matches and this season has guided the club to the top of the Scottish Premiership and won their Europa League group. This sound experience is just the ticket should as expected he move back to Anfield in the future.
The usual fill-in-the-blanks stories of Lampard clashing with senior players and losing the dressing room are in the air, but the bottom line is the club erred from the off in choosing a former star who had not yet earned his spurs as a manager.
"I have an excellent personal relationship with Frank and I have the utmost respect for him," said Abramovich in his farewell statement, words which ring hollow after he had pulled the trigger.
The Chelsea owner has only got himself to blame, although the fans indulged their fantasy too.
© Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile
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