Chelsea’s Frank Lampard is risking it all with needless media fights

For Chelsea and every other club, the media sets the narrative. Teams can break it and fans can choose not to believe it at all, but the media can control which direction the story goes. Cross them, especially unfairly, is to beg for the narrative to turn against you.

Frank Lampard, in his most recent presser, was a man against the world. He didn’t have to be. For the most part, the media has been even keeled when it comes to Lampard, even in recent weeks. But when Liam Twomey of The Athletic asked a question about Petr Cech, Lampard opted to pivot to go after Twomey. Lampard spoke about how critical and biased Twomey’s recent pieces had been. The answer was not about Cech. Lampard chose to go a different direction.

No journalist is perfect. But of all the journos to go after, Twomey is surely one of the last to go after for bias. The Athletic may have been the first to break that Lampard’s job was in jeopardy and at the moment where it would get the most clicks (right after the Manchester City loss), but nothing they said should come as any surprise to people that have been paying attention. Even if Lampard was referring to more recent pieces by Twomey, mostly about what is going wrong tactically with Chelsea, Lampard doesn’t really have much of a leg to stand on after the past month.

This all started with the Everton loss, largely. From that point, Chelsea has played nine matches. They have lost five of them, drawn one, and won only against West Ham, Morecambe, and Fulham (who spent a half with 10 men). This is the exact moment to critique the team. This is the exact moment for Lampard to recognize his job is under threat. None of that is Twomey’s fault. To target him on a completely unrelated question is a sign of weakness by Lampard, not strength.

Maybe Lampard was trying to make a broader point for his players. Maybe he was trying to make a broader point towards the media. Had he done so against someone from the s*n or The Mirror or some other tabloid, then maybe he’d have a point. But Twomey? Twomey has been one of the best and most even keeled journalists for years now. He’s the wrong strawman.

If this gets a reaction from the players that is fine, but little in recent weeks has shown that there is a reaction to be had. What will probably come of this is the media, which has been mostly on the fence about Lampard, will turn on him. There will be more pieces, not less, about how poorly the team is doing. How Lampard’s job is in danger. How this is only going to go one way.

It is a self fulfilling prophecy. The only way Lampard can get himself out of this hole is with results. But he won’t have the media to offer any sort of safety net should things continue as they are. They set the narrative, and Lampard’s childish outburst has only ensured that the narrative will be against him.