Frank Lampard leads Chelsea’s future dream team (back) to the Bridge

Frank Lampard and Jody Morris bring their Derby County side to Stamford Bridge in the fifth round of the Carabao Cup. It’s going to be quite an evening for two of Chelsea’s favourite sons. If a certain Danish beer producer did homecomings… well, you know the rest.

Super Frank Lampard spent an incredible 13 seasons at Chelsea, having signed in 2001 when Claudio Ranieri was in charge. During his illustrious career, he not only became the club’s top scorer but won every domestic and European trophy on offer.

The success Chelsea had during the 2000’s and beyond was in no small part down to Lampard and the partnerships formed through the spine of the team. Along with Petr Cech, John Terry and Didier Drogba, the archetypal box-to-box midfielder turned defence seamlessly into attack. The procession of managers employed by Roman Abramovich during that period were able to keep that constant in place and, as a result, the trophy cabinet door was never shut for long.

Jody Morris came through the ranks of Chelsea’s youth system alongside John Terry. He remains Chelsea’s youngest Premier League player, making his debut for the last 18 minutes of a 5-0 win over Middlesborough on 4 February 1996. He was 17 years and 43 days old.

Morris was nowhere near as prolific as Lampard in terms of trophies, appearances or goals. But he was there at the beginning of Chelsea’s ultimately meteoric rise into a European super-power. His stand out season as a player was in 1999/2000 under the management of Gianluca Vialli. The arrival of Claudio Ranieri and the players he bought (like Lampard) to the club all but finished Morris’s Chelsea career as a player.

As Lampard starts off on the managerial road, the work ethic he showed as a player – the hours spent honing his skills on the training ground long after everyone else had left – will stand him in good stead. If he is able to impart 80% of that passion and ambition into his current squad of players, they can look forward to many happy years of footballing.

With Morris alongside side him in the dugout, Lampard cleverly grabbed the opportunity of using someone who had managerial experience at youth level. If Chelsea’s academy is nothing else it has a proven record of producing decent footballers. Decent footballers empower decent managers, and together the two feed off each other and grow.

Chelsea FC know that and have loaned two of the club’s most promising kids into their ex-players’ trust. Mason Mount and Fikayo Tomori are getting good game time on loan in the most competitive league in the world. Further proof that Chelsea are on the side of the fledgling managers is their decision to allow Mount and Tomori to play against their parent club (if fit).

Lampard has said he’s looking forward to meeting up with 40,000 friends on Wednesday evening and, before the game, that will certainly be the case. No visiting manager will have ever received such a welcome. Once the game is on, though, that affection will be set aside in favour of backing the home team.

Whatever the outcome Frank Lampard will remain a Chelsea legend. Jody Morris hasn’t quite reached those heights yet, but there’s still plenty of time. Should the “dream team” make it back to Stamford Bridge, as many hope, having served their apprenticeship in the Championship, the world will surely be their oyster… probably.