Lampard seems to
have what it takes
- it’s not his fault
he had a head start
James Gheerbrant
There is a famous clip of a West Ham
United fans’ forum in 1996, before
Twitter turned tomato-flinging into a
remote cyber-sport, in which one
supporter accuses the young player on
the top table, son of a club legend and
nephew of the manager Harry Red-
knapp, of getting special treatment over
more deserving players such as Matt
Holland and Scott Canham. Red-
knapp’s prescient retort that Frank
Lampard would “go right to the very
top” is legendary, although arguably
the more interesting reaction is Lam-
pard’s: silently smouldering beneath his
black turtleneck and swishy side-part,
like a rejected Take That auditionee
with a mortal grudge.
Is that what drove Lampard? There is
a theory that a common factor in the
success of so many sports people with a
famous parent — a group that includes
Paolo Maldini, Erling Haaland, Owen
Farrell, Stuart Broad and the brilliant
San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shana-
han — is a burning desire to prove that
their privilege isn’t unearned. They
work twice as hard to prove they don’t
have it twice as easy. As Haaland told
the New York Times recently: “There
were some people who thought my
name got me my chance. For me, that
was motivation.”
Lampard fought against this percep-
tion harder than most. It shaped him as
a player. His signature skill was making
that run to the edge of the box to fire
home a moving ball, but he hated the
idea that he was merely a right-place-
right-time merchant, a snaffler of chan-
ces which came to him on a plate. So he
practised other, more industrious
facets such as slide-tackling and sprint-
ing with obsessive zeal. “I didn’t want to
be a goalscoring midfielder in the
mould of Robert Pires or Gus Poyet,” he
once said. “I wanted to be someone who
was involved in all aspects of the play,
from defending to making the final
pass.” Like a lot of successful people
who have a privileged start in life, Lam-
pard was desperate to show that he did
the hard yards; that his excellence was
hard-earned.
Fast-forward a quarter of a century
and it’s fascinating to see how the same
themes recur in Lampard’s managerial
career. After a respectable first season
at Chelsea, including an impressive run
to today’s FA Cup final, Lampard finds
himself at a point of rare opportunity.
Timo Werner and Hakim Ziyech have
already been signed, Kai Havertz is
likely to join them, and players such as
N’Golo Kanté, Mateo Kovacic and
Christian Pulisic are among the best in
their position in the Premier League.
Next season, Lampard will be the first
English manager to take the reins of a
genuinely elite squad with a shot at the
title since... well, when exactly? Maybe
Redknapp at Tottenham Hotspur ten
years ago? Arguably you have to go
back even further than that.
The question of when, or even if, an
English manager would get a chance
like that again has been a topic of peri-
odic consternation in recent years.Lampard has always smouldered at any suggestion that he had an easy ride but
should not be concerned at being at the right place at the right time at ChelseaDARREN WALSH/CHELSEA FC/GETTY IMAGESWould one of the “big six” ever take a
chance on a homegrown coach? Could
Sean Dyche or Eddie Howe amass
enough credit to build a persuasive
candidacy? It has taken a unique set of
circumstances to bring it about: the fail-
ure of the Maurizio Sarri experiment, a
transfer ban and now a spending spree
in a depressed market created by a
global pandemic. Yet the man to benefit
isn’t Dyche or Howe, but a manager
who began coaching full-time only two
years ago. Once again, making a laterun, it’s Lampard who finds the chance
at his feet.
Lampard’s managerial career thus far
is a curiosity. He took over a Derby
County team who had finished sixth
with 75 points the previous season, and
finished sixth with 74 points. He inher-
ited a Chelsea team who had just fin-
ished third with 72 points (minus Eden
Hazard, plus Pulisic), and finished
fourth with 66 points. There have been
lots of mitigating factors, and lots of
evidence that Lampard is a brighttactician with strong leadership
credentials. But even his most ardent
admirers wouldn’t compare his body of
work with the catalogue of improve-
ments wrought by Dyche or Howe or
Chris Wilder.
It’s not even entirely clear that
Lampard is a better manager than, say,
Darren Moore, whose win percentage
at West Bromwich Albion was six per
cent better than Lampard’s at Derby,
even though his tenure began in the
Premier League. And yet, while Moore
is crawling the B-roads at Doncaster
Rovers, Lampard has been handed the
keys to a Maserati.
Understandably for someone who
spent his early career dodging accusa-
tions of nepotism, Lampard is sensitive
to the idea that he has had an easy ride.
When Raheem Sterling respectfully
suggested on Newsnight that Lampard
had been lucky to enjoy advantages
that Sol Campbell and Ashley Cole had
not, he took umbrage, saying that disre-
garded “the details of how hard [he]
worked”. It’s probably why he seems to
get on better with Pep Guardiola,
another manager sometimes seen as
having benefited from undue privilege,than with Jürgen Klopp, a self-made
supercoach. Hence that strange contre-
temps with the Liverpool bench,
sparked by what Lampard perceived as
a palpable lack of respect.
That fierce desire not to be underesti-
mated still simmers within Lampard.
But how do you prove you can “go right
to the very top” as a manager when you
pretty much start off there? His coach-
ing career has not had a sense of trajec-
tory, which some may regard as a bless-
ing, but must sometimes feel like a mill-
stone to a man who has always prided
himself on doing the blue-collar work.
It’s not Lampard’s fault that he has
had a head start. No one much cares
that Zinédine Zidane had such a
smooth path to the Real Madrid job,
least of all Zidane, who has always been
supremely unbothered whether people
see him as a good coach or a jammy im-
postor. English football, with its fixation
on hierarchy and lionising diligence
and graft above all else, has always been
a slightly different beast. But you can
only take the opportunities that come
your way. Sometimes, being in the right
place at the right time is enough.Football Sport
the times | Saturday August 1 2020 2GS 7
Once again, making a
late run, it’s Lampard
who finds he has the
chance at his feetdeliberately concealing information
from the League in respect of filings
made in respect of the Profitability and
Sustainability Rules.”
While the panel may point to Covid-
19 for causing the delays, and the fact
that in normal circumstances the
season would have long been over, it
will be interesting if an explanation for
delaying the sanction is included in the
written reasons that have not yet been
published. The Times understands
there is precedent for such a delay.
Wednesday were among a number of
clubs under scrutiny for exploiting a
loophole, essentially buying their
stadium from themselves, that allowed
them to remain on the right side of the
EFL’s profit rules. Derby County are
also facing a possible sanction.
In the accounts filed by Wednesday
to Companies House for the period
ending July 31, 2018, the “profit on
disposal of stadium” is stated to be
Garry Monk’s Wednesday side won
only two of their final ten gamesLeeds United are set to sign the
teenage striker Joe Gelhardt as
they become the latest club to pick off
Wigan Athletic’s best youngsters
(Paul Joyce writes). Gelhardt, 18, is
expected to hold talks with the newly
promoted Premier League club when
he returns from holiday next week.
An initial fee in the region of
£1 million has been mooted for the
England youth international.
His departure would mark another
blow for Wigan, whose manager, Paul
Cook, resigned this week after their
relegation to League One following a
12-point deduction for entering
administration. An appeal against
that punishment began yesterday
with the outcome expected next week.- Birmingham City have named Aitor
Karanka as their head coach. The 46-
year-old succeeds his fellow Spaniard
Pep Clotet, who left the Championship
club with four games of the season
left. Karanka has been out of work
since a year-long spell at Nottingham
Forest ended in January 2019.
Hillsborough sale did breach rules
£38,061,000. However, documents filed
with the Land Registry say that the pur-
chase of Hillsborough, by a company
operated solely by Wednesday chair-
man and owner Dejphon Chansiri,
took place 11 months later. The docu-
ment says: “The price stated to have
been paid on 28 June 2019
for the land in this title
was £60 million.”
The company that made
the purchase was not
incorporated until June
21, 2019. Its listed offi-
cer was Chansiri. The
sale meant Wednesday
recorded a pre-tax
profit of £2.5 milllion
for 2017-18. Without
it, they would have
posted a pre-tax loss
of £35.4 million, on
top of previous
losses. Exceeding
losses of £39 million
over three years
breaches regulations.Continued from front
Leeds move to sign
teenage Wigan striker
Harry Kane, Jordan Henderson
and Tyrone Mings have all
joined the players’ panel that will help
Paul Elliott to produce the FA’s
diversity code. Wes Morgan, Troy
Deeney, Lucy Bronze, Nikita Parris
and Leah Williamson are also on the
panel (Henry Winter writes).
To address the lack of diversity in
many parts of football, Elliott,
chairman of the FA’s inclusion
advisory board, is in charge of an
overarching group taking feedback
from five expert panels, comprising
representatives from clubs, coaches,
grassroots, the media and the players.
Elliott will then work to develop the
principles of the code, which all
parties are expected to sign up to.
The Qatari FA is hopeful that
England will consider visiting next
year for a mini-tournament to help
stress-test some of the stadiums for
the 2022 World Cup finals. If England
qualify for 2022, there are plans to
offer fans tented accommodation in
the desert as well as floating hotels.England stars part of
FA panel on diversity
P W D L FA GD Pts
Leeds (C)............ 46289977354293
West Brom (P)... 46 22 17 7 77 45 32 83
Brentford .......... 4624 9 13 80 38 42 81
Fulham............... 46 23 1211 64 48 16 81
Cardiff................ 46 19 16 11 68 58 10 73
Swansea............. 46 18 16 12 62 53 9 70
Nottm Forest..... 46 18 16 12 58 50 8 70
Millwall............... 46 17 17 12 57 51 6 68
Preston............... 46 18 12 16 59 54 5 66
Derby.................. 46 17 13 16 62 64 -2 64
Blackburn.......... 46 17 12 17 66 63 3 63
Bristol City......... 46 17 12 17 60 65 -5 63
QPR..................... 46 16 10 20 67 76 -9 58
Reading.............. 4615 11 20 59 58 1 56
Stoke................... 4616 8 22 62 68 -6 56
Sheff Wed.......... 4615 11 20 58 66 -8 56
Middlesbro........ 46 13 14 19 48 61 -13 53
Huddersfield..... 46 13 12 21 52 70 -18 51
Luton.................. 4614 9 23 54 82 -28 51
Birmingham...... 46 12 14 20 54 75 -21 50
Barnsley............. 46 12 13 21 49 69 -20 49
Charlton (R)....... 46 12 12 22 50 65 -15 48
*Wigan (R)......... 46 15 14 17 57 56 1 47
Hull (R)............... 4612 9 25 57 87 -30 45
*deducted 12 points for entering administrationHow they finished