In spite of the fact that he began his playing career at West Ham United, Frank Lampard would be considered ‘Mr Chelsea’ by a lot of people. Perhaps only John Terry of the modern era of players would have more of a claim to that title than ‘Frank’, who was only too happy to answer the call when Maurizio Sarri decide to go back to Italy in 2019. He became the first English manager at Stamford Bridge since Glen Hoddle had left in 1996, if you ignore caretaker managers. Though it would be untrue to say that Lampard was a roaring success, he did do well enough to be brought in again when Graham Potter was sacked.
Lampard the Box-to-Box Midfielder
Frank James Lampard was born on the 20th of June 1978 in Romford, London. He joined the West Ham United youth team in 1994 at a time when his father was the assistant coach. He gained some loan experience at Swansea City and made his debut for the Hammers on the 31st of January 1996. He got his first start the following season, but he sustained a broken leg in the March that ended his season. He claimed that he was jeered off the pitch by West Ham fans, which made him reconsider his life in football. The 1997-1998 season saw him score his first goal and later his first hat-trick for the club.
An ever-present for the Hammers the following season, he helped them finish in fifth in the Premier League and get into the UEFA Intertoto Cup. He signed a contract extension ahead of the 1999-2000 campaign, which kept him at the club until 2005. He continued to impress, scoring 14 times and becoming the club’s third top-scorer. The following season, West Ham’s form suffered and they ended up in 15th, a drop off of ten positions. Having felt the pressure of being ‘Frank Lampard’s son’, Lampard also witnessed how poorly the club treated his father and made the decision to move to another club in London.
Lampard the Chelsea Player
Chelsea signed Frank Lampard from West Ham for £11 million in the June of 2001. He scored eight goals after playing in all of the league games that he was available for in his first season, continuing to make a name for himself as a talented box-to-box midfielder. In fact, his improvement was so marked that he was second behind Thierry Henry in the Football Writers’ Award Footballer of the Year for 2004. In the 2004-2005 campaign, Lampard played every league game for the third successive season, finishing with 13 goals in all competitions. That included a win in the League Cup final against Liverpool and a Premier League title.
Though the Blues missed out on a Champions League final appearance after losing 1-0 to Liverpool over two legs at the semi-final stage, Lampard was named the Footballer of the Year for 2005. The following season he was named in the inaugural World XI, scoring a career-high 16 goals as Chelsea retained the Premier League title. He finished as a runner-up to Ronaldinho for the FIFA World Player of the Year and the Ballon d’Or. He set the record for consecutive Premier League appearances with 164. When John Terry sustained an injury, Lampard spend most of the 2006-2007 season as the Chelsea captain.
Lampard’s playing career continued to go from strength-to-strength, including assistant Dider Drogba’s winning goal against Liverpool in the 2012 FA Cup final, which saw him win the trophy for the fourth time in his career. He also captained Chelsea in the Champions League final against Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena, which the Blues won on penalties after he took the third spot-kick. 2013-2014 proved to be his last season playing for Chelsea, moving to Manchester City on a short-term contract before signing for the Major League Soccer side New York City FC prior to his decision to retire from playing in 2016.
Frank Lampard’s Honours as Chelsea Player
| Season | League Titles | Domestic Cups | European/International Cups |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004/05 | Premier League | League Cup | – |
| 2005/06 | Premier League | Community Shield | – |
| 2006/07 | – | FA Cup, League Cup | – |
| 2008/09 | – | FA Cup | – |
| 2009/10 | Premier League | FA Cup, Community Shield | – |
| 2011/12 | – | FA Cup | Champions League |
| 2012/13 | – | – | Europa League |
Lampard the Chelsea Coach
Having gained a huge amount of experience both as a Chelsea and an England player, Lampard moved into management in spite of having very little experience in the field. He became the manager of Championship side Derby County on the 31st of May 2018, guiding them to the Championship play-offs where they lost to Aston Villa in the final. At his old club Chelsea, Head Coach Maurizio Sarri had confirmed that he would take up the Juventus job in order to be closer to his elderly parents, with Lampard immediately being linked with the position. On the 25th of June, Derby County granted him permission to hold talks with the Blues.
He was appointed as the new Head Coach on the 4th of July 2019, having been given a three-year contract. His first competitive match saw Chelsea lose 4-0 to Manchester United, which was the biggest opening day loss for a new manager since 1978. In his second competitive game the Blues lost to Liverpool on penalties in the 2019 UEFA Super Cup, but given that the Merseyside club was literally the best team on the planet at the time, winning the FIFA Club World Cup, it wasn’t a complete disaster for him. Things did improve, with Lampard being named the Premier League Manager of the Month for October.
In his first season, Lampard took Chelsea to fourth in the Premier League and the FA Cup final, losing to London rivals Arsenal. The Blues started the following season well enough, topping their Champions League group and making it to the top of the Premier League, but when the club won two of eight matches and dropped to ninth in the table, the writing was on the wall for the former player. He was sacked on the 25th of January 2021, remaining on the payroll for the rest of his contract. He was then out of work for a year before taking over at Everton, helping to keep the Merseyside club in the Premier League.
A Return to Chelsea
Lampard’s time at Everton saw the Blues avoid relegation in his first season, but they remained in a relegation battle in the following campaign and won just one match in 11, putting them 19th in the Premier League by the time that January came around. The club’s owner, Farhad Moshiri, went on TalkSport and said that Lampard’s position was safe, but after a 2-0 loss to West Ham he was sacked. At the time, it was just eight days prior to him having been in the job for a year. He was replace by Sean Dyche, who kept Everton up and remained in the job, also managing to keep them up the following season.
Lampard, meanwhile, was asked to go back to Chelsea as the club’s caretaker manager in the wake of the decision to sack Graham Potter. There were 11 matches left of the season and, in keeping with what had happened at Everton, the club’s former player guided them to win just one of them. It was Chelsea’s first bottom-half finish to a league campaign since 1996, with the Blues racking up the fewest goals scored and the lowest points tally of the Premier League era. Lampard’s win percentage of 9% was the worst for any manager of Chelsea who had taken charge for three games or more, all but cementing him as a poor manager in the eyes of the footballing world.