The soccer world was left in a state of shock recently as Premier League side Chelsea sacked manager Frank Lampard after 18 months in charge.
Lampard, a former MLS star with New York City, finished fourth in the table with the Blues last season, despite working under a transfer ban, and saw his team beaten in the FA Cup final by Arsenal. Despite qualifying for the Champions League last season, a competition they remained in at the time he left, owner Roman Abramovich decided to replace him with former PSG boss Thomas Tuchel.
Last season, Lampard was forced to field young players instead of going out and buying success, and despite having no alternative, it was a tactic that worked. Tammy Abraham and Mason Mount, both regulars in the Championship the season before, thrived in the first team, as did other young players such as Reece James and Fikayo Tomori. England honors quickly followed for Mount, Abraham and James, whilst Tomori has recently bagged a loan move to Italian giants AC Milan.
The cracks began to appear after a big summer of spending. Lampard brought in Kai Havertz ($88m), Timo Werner ($58.3m), Ben Chilwell ($55.2m), Hakim Ziyech ($44m), and Edouard Mendy ($26.4m), as well as Brazil and PSG legend Thiago Silva on a free transfer. With the unique blend of talented young players from last season and the expensive imports over the summer, success was expected.
Sadly, Lampard was not able to deliver, and there were whispers some of his transfer targets did not please the club’s hierarchy. He was credited with an interest in Declan Rice, a player the Blues released as a youngster. The club owners are believed to have been reluctant to pay big money for a player they let go, fearing how it would reflect on them. The form of Werner and Ziyech was a worse reflection of their strategy, whilst Havertz has suffered from Covid and struggled to have any impact also.
As explained in an infographic on the ‘January Transfer Window’ by Bwin, Chelsea are usually at the forefront of January transfers, but with such rich investment in the summer, that was never going to happen again and it left the manager in no man’s land. Lampard is believed to have wanted to replaced goalkeeper Kepa, but again the club owners were against that, not wanting to sell a player on the cheap after paying a big sum for him in the past. With his hands tied due to the summer commitment, Lampard needed a strong run-up to the close of the window to convince the owners he had a chance of delivering success.
Ultimately, soccer is a results-driven business and since December 5, the results have just not been good enough. Lampard’s side won four games from 11, with two of those against lower league opposition in the FA Cup. They came up short in matches against fellow Premier League challengers Leicester (2-0), Man City (3-1) and Everton (1-0), which surely helped swing the decision to get rid of the manager. With a below-par Manchester United topping the table in January and champions Liverpool looking a shadow of the side which won the title last season, the Blues should have been viable title contenders. Instead, when he was finally dismissed, Lampard’s Chelsea was ninth, behind West Ham and Aston Villa and 11 points shy of the top spot with 19 games remaining.
They are still in the Champions League, a competition Tuchel took PSG to the final of last season. He has previously managed in Germany as well as France, and he inherits a squad with players from those countries, used to playing his style and peppered with the quality youngsters Stamford Bridge saw emerge last season. The Blues can look forward with hope, few managers will ever inherit such a strong squad still prime for success, but that will be little consolation to Lampard, who will now take time to lick his wounds and plan his next move in the game.
