Chelsea: Frank Lampard’s second season expectations

After a successful first season in charge of Chelsea, Frank Lampard is expected to significantly improve the Blues in his sophomore campaign.

Frank Lampard is getting wishes granted left and right by the Chelsea hierarchy. With the Blues bringing in Hakim Ziyech, Timo Werner, Ben Chilwell, Thiago Silva, Kai Havertz and potentially others, the expectations for Lampard have to go up.

Adding quality to an already young and energized team will only cause expectations to skyrocket in the gaffer’s sophomore season in charge. The Blues had a very good season last year given the circumstances—losing Eden Hazard, Coronavirus and no real additions to help the manager out—but that is all changing as you read this. The question now becomes, what is an acceptable expectation for Lampard in his second year at the club?

Last season, the Blues finished fourth behind Manchester United on goal differential only. Both teams notched 66 points in the season, it would be expected that the Blues better that number this coming season. I don’t believe it to be too much to expect Chelsea to nip at Manchester City’s heels next season, assuming the Citizens don’t acquire Lionel Messi in the mean time.

Even with the completed signings and possible future additions, it’s unrealistic for Chelsea to challenge for the league. It’s simply not going to happen that quickly. Lampard will need one year, possibly more, to get to Liverpool’s level. Although, it may not be crazy to think that third place should be the Blues’ and a single digit gap separate Chelsea from second place. That’s where the squad should realistically expect to land. A successful season will consist of third place, an improved point total and a smaller gap between the Blues and the teams above them.

Lampard is a club legend, he might possibly be the biggest player in the club’s history depending on how his managerial career goes. All that being said, we must keep in mind that Chelsea has a standard and Roman Abramovich won’t accept anything below that line.

Lampard needs to continue to get the best out of his squad and everything will handle itself from there. The fans need to be real with themselves and realize Chelsea is building something in a way in which it doesn’t typically—things are operating a bit differently. In the past, transfers were more opportunistic for turning a profit or just extremely random. Every player linked had been to address an issue currently. The Blues are currently preparing for the long-term future with world class players now.

There shouldn’t be any #SackFrank campaigns this year across social media unless he truly underperforms to a level that can’t be tolerated by the board. But given what he did with the team he had last season, it’s hard to imagine that occurring.

Patience is not something I possess a lot of, so for me to preach the practice of it shows just how evident Chelsea’s methodical maneuvers have been this window. Not sure there is a fanbase that could be happier with its club than Chelsea fans are currently, but we have to remain real, as well.