Frank Lampard is one of the best midfielders of his generation. The Chelsea legend, who also played for Manchester City in the latter stage of his career has now turned out to be an exciting manager, managing his former club Chelsea.
During 13 years as a player at Chelsea, Lampard became their record goalscorer, winning three Premier League titles, four FA Cups and the Champions League.
The former England international started his managerial career with Derby County and was almost successful in promoting them to the Premier League but only fall short in the playoff.
Lampard then took on the reigns of Chelsea from Maurizio Sarri did a good job despite Chelsea facing a transfer ban. He promoted the youth and has got some really valuable players including the likes of Mason Mount, Recee James, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Tammy Abraham.
As, Chelsea’s transfer ban was lifted this summer, Lampard has done an excellent job with the recruitment part and is now building a team capable to fight for every trophy available.
Lampard’s Chelsea is now slowly becoming a force to reckon with in the Premier League. The once-a-successful player is now slowly going in the right path to becoming a successful manager.
Speaking to Eddie Hearn’s No Passion No Point podcast on BBC Sounds, Frank Lampard said he knew he risked damaging his legacy as a player at Chelsea by becoming the manager.
The 42-year-old said: “The life of a player is a bubble of selfishness to a degree. The facts and reality is I realise now it’s much harder than playing in terms of it being consuming,”
“The life of a manager is 25 people in the squad, staff in the building, problems with different departments. It’s so far removed from football.”
“When you work for your coaching badges, you have to put time in. Then when you start doing it, you have to practise, you have to fail, get better, fail and have relationships with people you never had as a player.”
“Players can easily sit there and say they want to be a manager, then they start the road and say: ‘Actually, I want to be a pundit.’ I respect it because being a pundit is tough as well but in terms of management I wanted to test the water.
“A manager gets 50 problems a day. It’s much more consuming but I love it and couldn’t live without it.“
Lampard admits he made “a lot of mistakes” and was “finding his feet” during his first year as a manager – at Derby County – before joining Chelsea in July 2019.
He added: “I can be really open that it helped me get the job – playing 13 years at the club helped me get the job,”
“I had to put my ego at the door a bit and say that I might ruin what I achieved in 13 years to a degree – because if it doesn’t go well, I will be judged harshly and quickly.”
“I am so driven personally that my biggest fear is myself. If I try to pull the wool over your eyes as Chelsea manager, it’s not going to work.”
“My football career put me in a decent position. So if that job is taken away from me, as long as I go in thinking ‘can I do the best job?’ then I think that if I have done the best I can, I will be pretty happy.”
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