Frank Lampard kissed Coventry City awake. In just a few months, the Chelsea icon has transformed the club, which was facing relegation, into a contender for a place in the Premier League – despite a difficult legacy.
Great players are far from being great coaches. A saying that is probably more often used in the English football world than anywhere else. The British media are only too happy to jump on cases where former superstars lag behind inflated expectations after moving to the sidelines.
Wayne Rooney is a prime example after brief, unsuccessful spells at Birmingham City and Plymouth Argyle. But Steven Gerrard and Gary Neville would also fit on this list.
Frank Lampard should also be put in this drawer, but the Chelsea icon does not fit so easily into it. After 18 months without a job, the former midfield engine of the Blues took over second-division club Coventry City, which was threatened with relegation, despite some mocking comments at the end of November 2024.
Lampard took over the difficult legacy of crowd favorite Mark Robins, who had led Coventry from the fourth division to almost the Premier League in seven and a half years. With honest work, however, the 46-year-old, now celebrated as “Super Frankie Lampard,” pushed his way into the hearts of the fans.
Coventry’s 3-2 win at Oxford United last Saturday saw them surge into fifth place and on course for the play-offs. For the first time in over 55 years, the proud club from the heart of England has recorded eight wins from the last nine league games. The dream of the Premier League, long buried at the beginning of the season, is alive again.
“Coming in the middle of the season – and I’ve done that before with Everton – brings a lot of challenges: you have to work quickly, find the problems and try to fix them as quickly as possible,” Lampard told The Athletic.
The fifth coaching stop of his career could change Lampard’s standing as a coach. In any case, he likes working “in the shadows”, which, in his opinion, could do with more light. “The relatively low media interest may be an advantage when it comes to doing your job, but I want the attention to be on me and the club because that means we’re doing our job well. If we continue to do our job well here, we’ll get more attention,” Lampard is convinced.
“People say, ‘You don’t need to work’,”
The “daily business”, which may be annoying for some, is what constantly drives Lampard. “People say, ‘You don’t need to work,’ but I’m 46 years old. I love to work. It has nothing to do with money.” He made enough of that in his playing career. “I just like doing it.”
Among the most famous names in his team is former Schalke player Haji Wright, who has so far only collected eight scorer points (seven goals, one assist) in 16 Championship games. Lampard strengthened the functioning structure in the winter transfer window, among other things with midfielder Matt Grimes, who came from Swansea City in January for four million euros.
One of Lampard’s secrets of success at Coventry is his adaptability: “When I started as a coach, everyone talked about philosophy and having a very distinct idea. ‘You have to have a philosophy and stick to it.’ But I was never completely on that path. Your philosophy is one thing, but it has to be based on the players and the team you are coaching.”
From the original idea of a back four, Lampard deviated at Coventry, now practising a back three – and in doing so, he actually started the current wave of success. This should ideally continue until the end of the Premier League, where Lampard was an integral part as a player.
