Chelsea job could tarnish legend Frank Lampard
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Published 10/10/2016 at 13:27 GMT
Frank Lampard says he wants to manage Chelsea one day, but Dan Levene says it would be a bad idea.
A fan takes a selfie with British player Frank Lampard (L) of New York City FC
Image credit: AFP
After years of misuse, the expression 'I love this club' has become the footballing equivalent of a politician's promise.
Joe Cole, who grew up a Chelsea fan, was one of those who lifted a lid on similar PR operations a few years back, telling of his signing for Liverpool and the complimentary words he was guided to insert into his welcome speech. It is now an expected part of the game, to be taken with a hefty pinch of salt: should Cristiano Ronaldo one day sign for Accrington Stanley, we will doubtless hear of how he has spent his whole life dreaming of that moment.
Frank Lampard, however, is not your usual sort of footballer. When he announces that he loves Chelsea, that he hopes to one day go into management and lead no other team, it just rings true.
Equally, the same is doubtless the case with Steven Gerrard and the side for which he played his entire Premier League career (no matter how close he came to signing for Chelsea); or with Ryan Giggs and Manchester United.
In this day and age pure legends, ones who played either all or the vast majority of their career for one club at the very highest level, are few and far between. George Cohen, one-club man and World Cup winner, has just this week had his status as such cast in bronze at his beloved Craven Cottage.
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Chelsea manager Mourinho lifts the English Premier League soccer trophy with Gudjohnson, Lampard and Terry at Stamford Bridge in 2005.
Image credit: Reuters
Lampard's adoration for Chelsea was borne out of several factors: his messy divorce from West Ham; a truly remarkable period of success with his new club; and a willingness, seldom seen in today's players, to engage with the paying public.
He is a clever guy, a naturally warm and chatty individual, and coming from a footballing family knows how lucky he is to inhabit times when to play means to possess the riches of a Pharaoh. And, being a player who scored roughly every other week of his Chelsea career, he is easy to love back.
Being a manager is a completely different matter. There are only two certainties in the life of a Chelsea boss: that he will be paid handsomely, and that he will be sacked. Only Bobby Campbell and Glenn Hoddle, among the permanent appointments in the long history of the club, escaped that fate: both being summoned upstairs (one to the boardroom, the other to England).
As Chelsea found with the accidental tenure of Roberto Di Matteo, sacking a legend can be painful stuff. And the club learned so little from that experience they went and did it all again three years later when they fired the reappointed Jose Mourinho.
The days of permanent managerial appointments are gone. They went with Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger, the sole example still in English football, is a peculiarity in that respect.
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Chelsea's English midfielder Frank Lampard (R) celebrates English defender John Terry scoring the second goal during their UEFA Champions League round of 16 second leg football match against Napoli at Stamford Bridge, London, on March 14, 2012
Image credit: AFP
'Super Frank', as he will forever be known at Stamford Bridge, never struck many as a potential coach. Earlier in his career all the talk was of a future in business, investment and perhaps a little punditry. Politics was even been mentioned as a possible avenue for Lampard.
But as the playing days draw to an end, so the mind is focused and management gives a way of continuing the consumption of that day-to-day drug of football – the loss of which can cause so much fear and panic.
It may not happen: Lampard may simply be floating ideas that will not come to fruition. But he says if it does, then the only club he wants to manage is Chelsea.
To do that would to be set himself up to fail because, even as we saw with the fairytale success of Di Matteo in Munich, nobody in this job escapes the inevitable.
Lampard is different: he deserves more than that. And hopefully he will reconsider a future career less likely to tarnish a record fully deserving of one day being cast in bronze.
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