Chelsea prepared Frank Lampard perfectly: 11 lessons from his 11 managers
2. Lessons 7 – 11: Pursuit of greatness
One of the best midfielders of his generation was next to grace the manager’s chair at Chelsea. Most of Carlo Ancelotti’s tutelage helped Lampard in the here and now. They both played for their respective clubs in similar styles and were able to adapt to the opposition without thinking about it too much.
Carlo Ancelotti made possible Lampard’s transition from world-class player to world-class manager.
Nine years after he last played for Milan, Ancelotti returned as their manager. Frank Lampard has turned that around quicker, but if he can emulate his former boss’s eight years in charge he won’t have done too poorly.
Many Chelsea fans believe that Ancelotti ought to have been at the club for much longer than he actually was. However, we see now his work was done. Lesson 7 was in the bag.
Lesson 8 came courtesy of Andre Villas-Boas who taught Frank to always be in class before the bell sounded… that’s it.
Lampard must have been a very poor timekeeper because Villas-Boas was at the club much longer than he needed to be.
After he finally left it was another former Chelsea player who took control of the team. Initially on an interim basis, Roberto di Matteo achieved legendary status by taking Chelsea to the final of the Champions League and beating Bayern Munich in their own backyard.
By this time lessons were being reiterated. Here was a former Chelsea player – 10 years after he’d left the club – winning football’s highest club honour. Lampard was learning that all things were possible and there were no limits. Di Matteo, like Avram Grant, gave the players the responsibility of self-managing during a game.
However, it was perhaps the harshest lesson that was learnt during Di Matteo’s time with the club. It didn’t matter who you were or what you’d achieved. If you were not up to the job, you’d be out the door. This is Chelsea.
No Chelsea fan saw the next appointment coming nor wanted it. Former Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez was drafted in as Di Matteo’s replacement.
Despite the clamour for him to leave the club before he’d even arrived, Benitez showed professionalism in doing his job under the most difficult of circumstances. At every Chelsea game there calls for him to go, it was unpleasant and relentless.
The lesson Lampard learned from Benitez was that dogged determination to win against all odds, to win when no one – not even your own fans – wanted you to.
At the end of his tenure as interim manager, Benitez left the club with a Europa League victory under his belt. What goes around, comes around.
By the time Jose Mourinho returned for his second spell in charge of the club, Lampard was well past Chelsea’s threshold of not retaining players for long after they had turned 30. It was to be ironic that Lampard left the club whilst Mourinho was in charge.
Lampard’s appearances in that last season were sporadic as contract talks stalled and finally petered out altogether. Maybe Mourinho felt, or maybe it was those at the top of the club, whoever it was, who decided Lampard’s time in SW6 was up. Lampard has said since that he wanted to stay.
John Terry the most recent Chelsea player among London's best one-club men. light. More
For the good of his development, though, the bigger picture was he should know when a player’s time is up. It was real tough love from the club and devastating for fans to see their club’s top goalscorer leave for New York City FC. Worse was yet to come when was loaned back to their sister club Manchester City for an unexpected return to Premier League football.
Lampard paid the club back for moving him on by scoring an equalising goal against them for City at the Etihad. As a 78′ substitute, you’d think he’d just see out his time, but not our Frank. It took just seven minutes on the field for him to grab that goal.
Obviously, the celebration was muted but in that moment he showed he was prepared to win at all costs. Nothing else matters.
The popular press would have us believe that Jose Mourinho was the “Special One.” Going back to where this story started in the fictional world of Harry Potter, Frank Lampard really was, like the young wizard, the “Chosen One.”
Next. Tactics and Transfers: 3-4-2-1 is best early set-up for Frank Lampard. dark
It will take a special kind of magic to fulfill the dreams of his masters and followers. But after years of training and guidance by a select group of individuals he surely has the tools to complete the task he’s been set.