Frank Lampard has put fun back into Chelsea a year after it was promised

Frank Lampard has brought fun back to Chelsea. No one wants to keep talking about Maurizio Sarri but he is a necessary reference point.

With the new football season just a couple of weeks away, Frank Lampard is beginning to put together a team of players that mixes those that have risen through the academy with the clubs more experienced players. Initially, the thoughts were always going to be that Lampard and Jody Morris would have a difficult start to their time back on their old stomping ground.

The naysayers pointed at a transfer ban that Chelsea’s hierarchy seemed reluctant to contest. The departure of Eden Hazard would, of course, be a massive miss for the team and the clubs owner Roman Abramovich was looking to off-load the whole kit and caboodle. How could a young management team possibly cope with that?

The transfer window – for the Premier League – closes at five in the afternoon, eight August, two days before the domestic action starts. Many Blues fans are going to look back on the summer of 2019 very fondly indeed. The arrival of a plethora of former players in excess of the two coaches into the backroom staff has reignited an enthusiasm that has been missing recently.

Marina Granovskaia, criticized by so many has done an outstanding job having been able to concentrate on the club itself rather than negotiating deals for journeymen players, many of whom have been bang average in recent seasons. Abramovich’s eyes and ears around SW6 also struck the best deal she possibly could with Real Madrid for the sale of Hazard as well as negotiating some crucial new contracts for existing players.

Getting Lampard on board must have always been on the cards, the fact that it may have happened a bit earlier than anticipated looks to have been a supreme stroke of luck. Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Mason Mount have both signed new contracts as a result which will keep them at the club for another five years. It looks like Callum Hudson-Odoi is set to do the same. All three are likely to get plenty of game time during the upcoming season.

Whilst Chelsea’s rivals in the Premier League have, so far, done very little in terms of incoming signings during this window, the Blues have signed Mateo Kovacic for just over £40 million. Add in Christian Pulisic arriving at the club for the first time since he was bought back in January and despite the loss of Hazard, things are far from bleak. Kurt Zouma and Tammy Abraham are back from good loan spells as is Premier League winner Michy Batshuayi. It is all good. Get the football started and the fun can begin and oh wait.

I have been racking my brains because I could not help but think I had missed something. Fun, that is it. Did our former manager, whatshisname, promise that? Yes, this really has been a good preseason, one of the best, because Maurizio Sarri decided, thankfully, that he fancied managing a side he thought was a cut above Chelsea. Well, good luck Sarri, none of this would be happening without you.

To those that will say stop mentioning Sarri, you are obsessed, I am really not. I will happily move on and never, ever mention his name again. However, in order to discuss, analyze, and write about players, there needs to be a reference point. It is difficult to have a reference point without being able to speak of past performances, how they played and under whose methodology they were operating. That is why his name often pops up in articles; it is to highlight his faults in management and team selection. Incredibly, he had some and they are up for discussion. It is not some latent desire to have him back at the club.

The club as whole were unhappy with how last season went when you look at the close-knit team of former players that have returned into the management set-up. Lampard said in the first few days after he arrived that he wanted players that understood Chelsea and were not looking to simply pass through on their way to something else. That also applies to managers.

Chelsea FC is in transition and moving forward in a way that I could not be more pleased about. Lampard is a living legend as far as many are concerned and all power to him. Much has happened since Chelsea lifted the Europa League trophy back in May and it is all positive. Every player who pulls on the blue jersey, or better yet the stunning white away one, this season will get full backing. This has been an exceptionally good preseason for Chelsea.