Is Frank Lampard the right man for Chelsea?
Chelsea certainly think so as Lampard became the 14th manager Roman Abramovich has appointed since he bought the club in 2003.
Abramovich’s restlessness and his desire for more from his managers have not prevented Chelsea being successful. Maurizio Sarri may have spent last season moving between the anger of his own supporters and the defiance/misunderstandings from his players but he still ended it with a Europa League and a top four place.
But he’s gone now and, after one adequate season at Derby County, it’s time for club legend Frank Lampard to return and make everyone feel good about themselves again. It’s time for the Chelsea Way to assert itself again.
There have been many who have welcomed the appointment, pointing out that Pep Guardiola was untried before he got the Barcelona job but, like Lampard, he understood the club.
Is this helpful? On the Football Spin, Dion Fanning think it isn’t. There were a lot of bad managers who were given time because Alex Ferguson got time at Manchester United and it may be that a number of clubs are entering a stage where they search for the next Guardiola by trying to replicate the circumstances of his appointment.
But most managers, Fanning says, are not Ferguson or Guardiola and it doesn’t do any of them much good to say they are.
Lampard says he knows the club, but given Abramovich’s record with managers maybe he doesn’t know Chelsea as well as he thinks.
Certainly there will need to be patience and an understanding of the club’s position if Lampard is to do what Chelsea say they want him to do.
They want him to develop young players but every manager has been asked to do that, even if now, with the transfer ban, Chelsea may have to.
But ultimately, can Chelsea change their nature? That is the only thing that matters and comparisons with Guardiola won’t make any difference.
It’s all part of The Football Spin
