Chelsea are on the lookout for a new manager, and Frank Lampard has immediately been linked given his recent success as Coventry City boss.
The Blues sacked Liam Rosenior on Wednesday after a hammering at the hands of Brighton, a result that could leave the club outside of the European positions altogether. Rosenior failed to arrest a dire slide down the table, and he becomes the latest manager to fall under the Todd Boehly and co. regime.
Calum McFarlane will take charge for now, and given the proximity to the end of the season, it's likely the new manager appointment won't be until the summer.
A number of potential bosses are already being linked, and one of them is former Blues boss Lampard, who has just sparked his coaching career back to life by taking Coventry City back to the Premier League for the first time in well over two decades.
Lampard struggled in his last job, with Everton, and had to be patient for his next opportunity, but he sparked Coventry back to life and won the Championship title.
Some believe Lampard could now be in for another opportunity at the Chelsea job, where he served between 2019 and 2021, but what has been said about his future at his current club?
Lampard appears to be fully focused on a Premier League campaign after winning promotion with Coventry, which should come as no surprise, but he has made it clear that he wants money to spend in a bid to keep the Midlands club in the top flight.
"So that's something we have to work on quickly now because of where we're at, we have to be ambitious -- we're Coventry City football club," he said following the club's promotion.
"I know what the Premier League is and its going to be a challenge, we can enjoy the moment for the next two weeks, but of course we have to work behind the scenes to ensure we go up the right way.
There's a lot of work to do because we know the step that it will be for the football club.
Coventry chief addresses Lampard's future
Coventry chairman Doug King spoke about Lampard's future with Coventry Live towards the end of March. He said: "Well, look, Frank's put himself back in the arena and we've had a great ride.
"If we can top it off with going where we want to top it off to then he will have achieved a great thing. Obviously, he's been at top levels and won great championships and great cups, but I think even he will look at this as a huge achievement, you know, a non-parachute team that's not been in the Premier League for 25 years.
"Playing how we're playing, the goals we're scoring, how we're doing it in terms of not just scraping it in with one-nil and playing attritional football, but rather doing it in a really attractive manner, I think he'll be very proud of that, and I think he's very comfortable and very happy in his environment at Coventry, and I think he really enjoys it.
"Now obviously, as in anything, decisions have to be made in people's lives, and I can't speak for Frank. Obviously, he's under contract with us, and I'm sure he wants to lead us to the Premier League and manage us in the Premier League, and maybe for the next hundreds of years at Coventry because he loves it forever.
"But look, I don't even look forward on it, I think everybody's lives change, we all get older, we all have different things in our lives, and what are our ambitions, and they're the things that you keep private.
"But for me, he came in, he put himself into the picture, we obviously gave him that opportunity, and it's worked incredibly well for us both, so, you know, that's great."
Whether Chelsea would even turn to Lampard to fill their vacancy remains to be seen, but in any case, it seems a Coventry departure is unlikely, and in truth, it may be a foolish move for Lampard. He is currently in a job where he has succeeded, is succeeding, and it would be a huge gamble to go back to Chelsea, where the bar is much higher and, in truth, the chances of failure are much higher.
Returning to the Premier League with Coventry, there will be low expectations, and just surviving in the top flight will be seen as a giant success.
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