Are they seriously bringing HIM back?!?!? Chelsea is apparently set to rehire former manager and player Frank Lampard to be the interim boss for the final dozen games of the season, proving Todd Boehly has actually gone insane!
Thankfully, for all Chelsea fans, this news has not been entirely confirmed yet, but the very thought of Frank Lampard coming back to this Chelsea side sounds less appealing than booking a ticket on the Hindenburg.
So, for those who haven’t been closely following Chelsea’s managerial disaster this season, the Blues are now set to hire Frank Lampard to be their third manager of the year…even though he was the man replaced by Chelsea’s first manager this season, Thomas Tuchel. Am I going insane or is this the strangest, weirdest, and most downright baffling managerial decision made in the last five years?
Thomas Tuchel, the man Boehly sacked after a dozen or so games, was brought in solely to correct the mistakes and shortcomings of Frank Lampard’s time at Chelsea as even though Lampard was one of the greatest central midfielders in Premier League history, he’s been a below average manager.
Under Lampard in the 2020/21 season, Chelsea was drifting away from the Top-4 as they sat 9th in the Premier League, they faced the daunting task of having to beat Atletico Madrid over two legs in the Champions League, none of their new signings were hitting the ground running, and the side was seriously struggling for goal (just like today).
Sure, Lampard was great at integrating academy players into the first team, such as Mason Mount, Reece James, and Tammy Abraham, but he was ten feet out of his depth when dealing with major signings and respected footballers, such as Thiago Silva, Ben Chilwell, Eduardo Mendy, Kai Havertz, Hakim Ziyech, and Timo Werner.
I’m not trying to insult Lampard as the gulf of class, quality, and expectations when jumping from championship-level Derby to Champions League-contending Chelsea is larger than the Pacific Ocean, but that was just the reality of this situation.
I mean, there’s a reason why Thomas Tuchel, who won numerous titles and managed to lead PSG to a Champions League Final, came in and secured a 4th place finish, an FA Cup Final berth, and won the 2021 Champions League in under 6 months. Tuchel was experienced and had the tactical nuance to lead highly paid and respected footballers, while Frank Lampard did not.
And that is what makes this potential appointment so strange as the situation at Chelsea now is even worse than it was during the last days of Lampard’s first reign.
The club sits in 11th place on just 39 points after 29 games, the club is currently 14 points behind 4th place Man United having played a game more, the club has already been knocked out of the FA Cup and the EFL Cup, the roster is bloated past the point of recognition as over £600M of disjointed, mismatched stars across Europe waist away on the Chelsea bench, the club has a crucial CL Quarterfinals matchup against Real Madrid next Wednesday, and the team can’t score!
Judging by the recent past, this is not a situation Frank Lampard can control, let alone improve.
I hate to make such certain assumptions, but how is Lampard seriously going to get Chelsea into European spots and potentially win the Champions League (which is presumably what Todd Boehly wants) if he couldn’t steer Everton from the relegation zone this year. This signing honestly makes zero sense!
It would be really funny if Frank Lampard can reverse history and be the manager that relieves Chelsea from its woes and wins it European silverware, but there’s a far greater likelihood he dooms them to an unprecedented bottom-half finish.
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