Chelsea can’t separate Frank Lampard the player and manager

Much has been said about separating Frank Lampard the player and the manager. Chelsea can’t, which was kind of the point all along.

The recent down turn in form has led to much hand wringing and reevaluation among the fanbase. No longer is Chelsea challenging for the title (not that there is a title race yet anyways, and the Blues are just six points off top at the moment). Now Chelsea is “IN CRISIS” and this time it isn’t even of the media’s making. Chelsea fans have moved on to making their own crises without the media needing to start one.

Part of this has been a notion that Frank Lampard the player and Frank Lampard the manager needs to be separated. His achievements as a player should not protect him as a manager. He has to be treated on his own merit.

Those are all fine notions that miss the point. Frank Lampard was brought in because of his playing career at Chelsea. He was brought in because the club knew they couldn’t separate his playing career from his managerial career. That was all part of the plan.

The Maurizio Sarri reign was a disaster off the field and occasionally on it. But that down turn started under Antonio Conte and arguably Jose Mourinho as well. After a few poor years, Chelsea had lost its way. It needed someone to come in and put them back on course but also to restore the heart of the club. Lampard did both. Not only by being the manager, but by integrating the youth that should have been made a part of the first team as far back as Mourinho.

Lampard was brought in with a three year plan and contract to match. Where the plan needs to be at any given moment is not known to the public, but the end goal is to return Chelsea to the top of the Premier League. Half way through that, the Blues are as close as they have been since Conte’s side lifted the title.

This comes along with the pretty well spread and held belief that Chelsea has to have patience. That has been the case since Conte and many times before him as well. There has always been a recognition that managers need time to work, but there has rarely been the stomach for it.

But this is where Lampard the player and Lampard the manager intersects. If fans can’t give Lampard patience, of all people, who are they gonna give it to? The club surely recognized that when giving him a three year plan. Barring any significant divergence from the path, the club knows they have to stick with Lampard. They want to stick with Lampard. His playing career is a large part of that, as it should be irrespective of his experience as a manager. His connection with the club is a primary reason why the club wanted him.

A tangent off that is how much of a stomach fans have for the rebuild that has to happen. It’s been delayed on and off again for the better part of a decade. Each knew manager has to start from square one and try to survive until the rebuild is completed. None have. Again, if not Lampard, then who will be given the patience to survive.

People tend to get upset with the Jurgen Klopp comparisons, but the Liverpool one is not incorrect. Liverpool last won the title 30 years before their current one. In those first few years, they also advocated patience while not really practicing it. Klopp finally got that patience, but that came decades after not having the stomach to push through the weeds as needed.

Do Chelsea fans have the stomach for the rebuild now which has to happen, or will it need to take two or three decades before they find it? And if they can’t stomach it with Lampard, then who will they stomach it with? If anyone had a time machine and told someone a decade ago that Lampard was manager, six points off top, and his job was in danger, they would have laughed that time traveler off.

The simple fact of it is that Lampard the player and Lampard the manager can’t and shouldn’t be separated. No other manager will come into the club right now and rebuild it as needed. No other manager will get the patience that Lampard will get. It isn’t because of his time at Derby. It’s because of his time at Chelsea. And that’s okay. It’s what the club wanted and it’s what the club needs.