He led Chelsea as a player, took the reins in the club’s financial season and led a youth revolution, but it turns out that Frank Lampard is not the man to take her one step further. The manager ended his role in the Blues in the middle of the season, when they are in ninth place and 11 points away from the summit and now the English media explain in detail what led to the decision.
One of the main reasons, it turns out, is the deterioration in the relationship between Lampard and professional manager Marina Granovskaya. In fact, she was the one who led the move to name Chelsea’s former legend so that fans would have a figure to connect with during the club’s transfer boycott, but already in negotiations over his salary there have been disagreements between the two and the professional team next to him.
Lampard demanded a team that includes former goalkeeper Shay Gibben, with whom he collaborated in the derby, as goalkeeping coach, but that request was rejected and in addition Marina decided to give a senior role to the team to Eddie Newton, the club’s loaned manager, although Lampard did not think it necessary. Newton did not receive much authority from the coach and last January left for Trabzonspor for this reason.
The acquisition of Timo Werner also led to a fall in Lampard’s relationship with Marina. The German striker was on Chelsea’s agenda as early as last summer, but due to the fact that she was battling for a place in the Champions League Werner was not keen on joining in January (then the transfer ban of the Blues was lifted). Lampard wanted to add Pierre-Emerick Obmiang and Khakim Zeish, but did not accept the option from the Chelsea management (the agreement on the Moroccan addition came only in February), which led to his frustration.
To be honest, Chelsea were looking behind the scenes for a replacement for Lampard last season and signed Julian Naglesman and Mauricio Pochettino, but the fact that he secured a place in the Champions League with the addition of reaching the Cup final made him realize that he deserves credit. This, of course, is alongside his good relationship with owner Roman Abramovich.
Another point of tension between Lampard and Granovskaya was the handling of coffee. The most expensive goalkeeper in history was brought down to the bench during the previous season for a month and demanded another opening goalkeeper, which led to a quarrel between the two. The Basque, for his part, felt that the coach did not give him clear tactical instructions at all or gave him confidence and-gave him up too quickly. Peter Cech was the one who assisted the goalkeeper in the difficult period and it seems he came back to get credit, but then Edward Mandy joined and became the first goalkeeper.
So Chelsea poured huge sums in the summer to add stars like Werner, Kay Hubbert and Ben Chillwell, but in practice the results did not come. At the same time, Lampard demanded further reinforcement – West Ham midfielder Declan Rice who was also thrown out of the Blues’ youth department in the past – which greatly angered Chelsea’s management. “He must stop demanding him or he will lose his job,” a source told Athletic in December. The coach, for his part, sought to renovate the back and even sought to turn Rice into a brake and at the same time demanded the addition of James Tarkovsky from Burnley while working to release Pikayo Tumori (an academy player who received credit from him last season) as well as Antonio Rodiger.
The breaking point came with the 2-0 loss to Leicester that led to much outrage at Abramovich. The next morning he cracked up on phone calls to potential coaches – Ralph Rangnick, who refused because he did not want to coach – as well as Julian Naglesman and Thomas Tuchel, who have a common language with three German players: Kay Haberz (who has not lived up to expectations so far), Werner and Rodiger. Lampard himself also realized that his time was up and after that game he shook hands with the players and thanked them for the period they played under him.
