Player clashes and ruthless appraisals – the inside story of Lampard’s sacking Inside story of Lampard’s sacking
Coach had to contend with squad infighting and scrutiny by Abramovich’s aides as soon as results turned against him
Lampard and his backroom staff will wonder if they were ever the Russian’s long-term choice
When Chelsea confirmed the return of Frank Lampard as head coach in July 2019, the statement, which sat under a picture of the club’s record goalscorer next to director Marina Granovskaia, announced he had signed a threeyear contract.
In reality, that deal was two guaranteed years with the option of a third, which means Chelsea will presumably only have to pay Lampard six months of his yearly wage, around £2million, as severance.
Whatever the long-term good intentions of Chelsea at the time, the fact the option of the further third year was never taken up at the end of Lampard’s first season in charge will leave conspiracy theorists wondering whether the doubts inside Stamford Bridge were present long before this season’s run of five defeats in eight league games.
Lampard, in many ways, was the only choice for Chelsea after Maurizio Sarri had left for Juventus, at a time when the club had sold their best player, Eden Hazard, and were serving a transfer ban. That is not to say he did not deserve the job or due diligence was not carried out, but Stamford Bridge did not have its normal pulling power.
Chelsea would have been by his work at Derby County, whom he took to the Championship play-off final, but Lampard also provided the club with some positive PR – with supporters and outside Stamford Bridge – at the time they most needed it.
Now, 18 months later, Lampard and his backroom staff will be wondering if they were ever the longterm choice of Roman Abramovich and the board, or whether they were always viewed as the best option to get the club through a particular period that effectively finished at the end of last season.
Lampard knew the rules of engagement at Chelsea better than anybody and he had been warned by former managers of the club that the job was unlike any other in European football. And yet even the 42-year-old, who played under 10 different Chelsea managers, would have been taken aback by the ruthless nature of the hot seat after it became clear that Champions League qualification and an FA Cup final at the end of his first season in charge was viewed as a passable achievement, rather than any sort of success within the club.
Rather than being called in to discuss his impressive work with the club’s academy graduates or extending his contract into its third year, Lampard was left in no doubt that fourth place would never be good enough for Abramovich’s Chelsea.
That is not to say Lampard was never backed or supported. Chelsea spent £220 million on new players last summer, including £50million on left-back Ben Chilwell, whose signing was very much pushed by the head coach.
Abramovich even took the unprecedented step of explaining his decision to sack Lampard in Chelsea’s confirmation statement, but the Russian owner had not offered any words of encourageimpressed
ment at the end of Lampard’s first season in charge or during this season’s 17-game unbeaten run in all competitions, in which the club briefly moved into Premier League title contention and breezed into the last 16 of the Champions League. Instead, Abramovich and the board were more worried that the club had finished last season 33 points behind leaders Liverpool and 15 adrift of second-placed Manchester City.
Concern over that gap, which Lampard was informed had to be closed, prompted the summer transfer business and explained why Chelsea were getting twitchy when this season’s unbeaten run ended against Everton. Lampard’s side were beating the teams below them, but not those they were meant to be fighting closer to the top of the table.
Lampard not only faced questions from journalists over pressure on his position after back-to-back defeats by Everton and Wolverhampton
Wanderers, he and his backroom team were also under scrutiny from inside the club.
His experience of Chelsea as a player meant Lampard knew he could not worry too much about any discussions that may have been taking place above him, but he was deeply concerned by the impact of being left such an inflated squad.
Like many Premier League clubs, Chelsea found it difficult to sell players last summer because of the financial consequences of the coronavirus pandemic and Lampard was left with a large, unbalanced squad, full of internationals and senior professionals. The problems quickly became apparent as Antonio Rudiger was relegated to fifth-choice centre-back and left out of a series of match-day squads.
Rudiger is understood to have clashed with Cesar Azpilicueta more than once, as Chelsea’s captain attempted to ease tensions between players at the training ground. Some of the young players who have performed so admirably for the club and Lampard are believed to have complained about the treatment they received from disgruntled team-mates, and accusations of certain graduates being favoured have not always been confined to social media. But, just as Chelsea could not sell another two of the players Lampard would have allowed to leave, Marcos Alonso and Jorginho, Rudiger stayed and managed to work his way back into the team.
Alonso was frozen out completely after storming to the team bus after the chaotic 3-3 draw at West Bromwich Albion and, as on so many occasions at Chelsea, the unhappy players have outlasted the manager.
The arrival of Lampard’s successor, Thomas Tuchel, will be seen as a positive move for two of his German compatriots, Timo Werner and Kai Havertz. The club dispute theories that the disappointing form of the pair has been instrumental in Lampard’s sacking, instead pointing to a lack of confidence in the group for well over a month.
Statistics and trends are taken seriously by Abramovich, so the fact Lampard sits at the bottom of a table listing the points-per-game ratio of managers during the oligarch’s reign weighed heavily against him.
Abramovich had wanted to see evidence that momentum could shift back in Chelsea’s favour and the feeling among Lampard and his staff had been that they would get a chance to close some ground on the top four in the Premier League games against Wolves tomorrow and Burnley, following Sunday’s FA Cup victory over Luton Town.
But Abramovich’s mind was made up and there will be a nagging sense that Lampard was always fighting a losing battle to be given time at the club he served for almost 15 years.