Maurizio Sarri’s loyal halfwits have not betrayed much understanding of football or Chelsea FC. Their reaction to rumours of Frank Lampard replacing Sarri are a jumble of ignorance and projection.
“Nice club legend you got there. Be a shame if anything happened to him.” Maurizio Sarri fans are taking the news of his imminent departure about as well as we would have expected. Rather than accept that Sarri probably always saw Chelsea as a stepping stone and Juventus are offering the step up a year or two sooner than he may have planned (to say nothing beyond this apophasis about his suitability for Chelsea in the first place), they are rationalizing Sarri’s decision to leave by saying Chelsea fans made his work environment so hostile, so abusive, that any right-thinking person would want to escape. And, they warn, the same will happen to the fans’ presumptive favourite to replace him, Frank Lampard.
Sarri’s legions have spent the last week concern-trolling Chelsea fans. Lampard will start on a tide of warm feelings and enthusiasm, they say. But after the first downturn in performances the fans will turn against Lampard.
The negativity on and off the pitch will snowball. Lampard will in turn lose the backing of Roman Abramovich, followed inevitably by the sack, leaving amid jeers perhaps as early as midseason.
In short, Lampard’s managerial trajectory at Stamford Bridge will be a shorter version of Maurizio Sarri’s.
Well.
Frank Lampard would be the 10th Chelsea player to return as a manager. The fans did not turn sour on any of those previous nine. John Hollins may have been the closest any of them came to departing under a dark cloud. He coached the Blues from 1985-88, and was sacked as the Blues spiralled towards relegation. Clearly, a different era.
Even among the likes of Hollins, Tommy Docherty and Roberto di Matteo, Lampard would be arguably the most beloved and truly historic Chelsea player to take charge of the team.
Lampard personifies not only the golden era of Roman Abramovich, but the club’s transition from an above-average Premier League club to the dominant force of the 2000s. No one can talk about that era without his name figuring prominently in the club’s identity and achievements.
For all of my verbomaniacal talents, his importance to the club and the love of the fans is inexpressible. If you don’t get it, you don’t get it. I can help you understand a lot about this game and this team, but I can’t help you here.
Frank Lampard has zero risk of ending his managerial spell at Chelsea the way Maurizio Sarri is.
For starters, Lampard will not begin his spell at Sarri did. Lampard would arrive to immediate acceptance from all Chelsea fans except for those who are Sarri fans uber alles. Even so, he will still work to earn that acceptance.
Lampard did not trade on his reputation at Derby County nor did he carry a chip on his shoulder that he was a champion of Europe and they hold the record for worst Premier League season. Lampard worked every day for Derby’s fans to treat him as one of their own, and they now they do. He knows he has a place at Chelsea FC as a player. He will not think that entitles him to anything as a manger. He will work for the right to lead the Shed End in the bounce after a late-season win.
As a player and as a manager (and as a functioning adult human), Lampard knows how these connections form the bridge that gets you over the bad times.
When the results turn, as everybody knows they will at some point because that’s how it goes, he will have more than results to rest his reputation and affections on. Much like having N’Golo Kante in front of the defence, it gives you layers of protection.
And if Roman Abramovich decides not to keep Lampard employed for the duration of his contract, the ire will be on Abramovich, not Lampard. To whatever extent Abramovich cares about popular sentiment, it will be the hardest sacking of his sack-filled career.
Chelsea fans are predisposed to respect Frank Lampard and give him every benefit of the doubt as manager. Lampard will work constantly to deepen his ties to the fans and the club as the manager. Lampard will not turn on or abandon these fans, which makes it inconceivable the fans would turn on him.
The comparisons to Maurizio Sarri say more about the people making them than about Frank Lampard. If they think fans will turn on Lampard, that’s because they think they will. Because they know their opinions and emotions are so superficial, everyone else’s must be, too.
It’s also because they still cannot accept Maurizio Sarri’s omissive role in alienating Chelsea fans, which is why so few people are bothered to see him casting his eyes back to Italy. The Sarritologists see one man replacing another man, unable to accept one’s shortcomings therefore unable to respect another’s distinctions. Stripped of all context, Sarri and Lampard are basically the same person (you know, like how Jorginho is a better defender than N’Golo Kante when you pluck a few stats off the page).
The idea that Chelsea fans will turn on Frank Lampard is ridiculous on its face, which makes it the perfect coda to Maurizio Sarri’s season at Chelsea.