Finally, our boy Frank Lampard has returned home. To be fair, it hasn’t been that long – just over five years – but for someone so entrenched in what Chelsea are about as a club, too long.
With Maurizio Sarri a distant memory, the jury is out as to what the players actually thought about him and his methodology. We’ll have to wait for those post-career biographies. We do know a large section of Chelsea’s fan base felt he was not the right man for the job.
From previous interviews given throughout his time with Chelsea as a player, Super Frank Lampard has spoken about Chelsea supporters with great affection. We’ve seen the rapport he had with the Derby County supporters after just one year in the job. Those Rams supporters will be the real losers here. Clearly, they were building a relationship with Lampard and – let’s not forget him – Jody Morris, and they’ve seen that snatched away after the call from Roman Abramovich. Chelsea’s gain really is Derby’s loss but. in reality, what could they do?
The TV schedules are not out yet, so the fixtures will be rearranged, but the weekend of August 17-18 will be a very special one in SW6.
Chelsea’s first home game of the 2019/20 season will be against Leicester City and Stamford Bridge will be pumped. It will a homecoming as great as the stadium will have ever seen. Aside from Antonio Conte’s first season, the atmosphere inside the Bridge has been sanguine as Chelsea suffered without the ball during Conte’s difficult second season and as they suffered with the ball under Sarri.
Add into the mix Jose Mourinho’s annus horribilis as his time with the club he’d won the Premier League with three times expired, Chelsea’s followers have had a torrid few seasons.
The arrival of Lampard is an opportunity for the club to have a reboot. They have already shown positive signs of moving forward, despite a transfer ban, with the arrival of another old boy, Petr Cech, as the club’s Technical and Performance Analyser.
With Christian Pulisic arriving once his international duties are out of the way and Mateo Kovacic permanently signing from Real Madrid, the feel-good factor around the club keeps going up.
The potential return of loanees Kurt Zouma and Tiemoue Bakayoko a year further into their development increases that positivity even more, and the reasons for simply accepting the ban are more apparent.
And then there are the kids. Enter stage left, Jody Morris. With Lampard being front and centre Morris has slipped under the radar to some degree. However, his influence in the set-up at Derby will certainly not have been lost on his boss.
Jody Morris’s successful spell in charge of Chelsea’s U18’s reaped a cabinet full of trophies. The knowledge and previous management he and Lampard have of those around the first team squad can only aid their development. Mason Mount and Fikayo Tomori are already known quantities and, with Lampard and Morris being fully au fait with their abilities, their integration into the starting XI will be all the simpler.
There has been too much doom and gloom on social media around Chelsea Football Club for the last couple of seasons. That has to change. Lampard can change that.
Those who worry he won’t be able to handle a club like Chelsea can rest easy in the knowledge that he’ll know what’s around the corner before he’s tucked into his morning cocoa pops. With Cech acting as a go-between from the boardroom to pitch side, the class of 2012 will be able to turn player power on its head.
Frank Lampard is and will remain a Chelsea legend long after he’s departed the managerial hot-seat for pastures new, no matter what happens. Super Frankie Lampard is Chelsea and those who follow the club will give him the time to grow and adjust to life back in the limelight of the club he rightly regards as home. It’s something he’s spoken about in the past, a fitting end for this article and beginning for his second act.
“This club becomes you. Once you’ve played for it, you’re always welcomed back for the rest of your life, so you become Chelsea and it becomes you.”
Welcome back Frank…………start the bounce!!!!