Coventry City have unveiled Frank Lampard as their new head coach, handing him the reins on a two-and-a-half-year deal. The 46-year-old is set to lead the Sky Blues for the first time in an upcoming clash against Cardiff at the Coventry Building Society Arena this Saturday.
Joining Lampard's backroom staff are Joe Edwards and Chris Jones. Speaking to Coventry’s media team, Lampard expressed his excitement and name-dropped popular long-serving former manager Mark Robins who was sacked earlier this month.
He said: “I’m absolutely delighted to be here. It’s a club I have huge respect for in terms of its history and tradition. I grew up in an era where Coventry City were very successful.
“To be given the role as Head Coach is a huge deal for me to come in and try and help with the good work and foundations that have already been laid at the Club with the work Mark Robins did himself and the work that Doug King is doing now at the top of the club.
“It’s an ambitious club that wants to move forward and I want to help as much as I can. I’ve got my idea how I want my teams to play and how I work, how I coach and that’s from the experiences I have had over the last five years, and I want to bring that here.”
“In time, I want to bring an exciting and attacking team for them to see. A possession-based team that also wants to attack and attack quickly at times.
“I want to excite the fans and that’s certainly what I want to work towards, and of course we want to be an aggressive team that wants to win the ball high up the pitch.”
Acknowledging the challenges ahead, Lampard noted: “There will be some things we want to move forward with and maybe change and understand that in that process with a bit of change we have to get a lot of hard work in to get the results that we want and I’m certainly very ready to put that work in and pass the message on to the players and hopefully that shows on the pitch.”
Lampard returns to management after departing from Stamford Bridge as interim Chelsea manager in May 2023.
Robins' departure from Coventry earlier this month came as a shock, ending his impressive seven-year tenure that saw the Sky Blues climb from League Two to the brink of Premier League football.
Coventry's owner and executive chairman Doug King expressed his excitement about the new appointment, stating: "I am delighted that Frank Lampard has agreed to join our club as head coach. Frank cut his teeth in the Championship and knows what is needed in this league to be successful.
"His experiences thereafter at Chelsea and Everton will ensure he brings to our talented squad clear understanding of exactly what is needed to succeed at the very top level that we as a club are striving to reach."
Lampard hung up his boots in 2017 and took the reins at Derby County in May 2018, leading them to the Championship play-off final in his inaugural season.
Despite losing to Aston Villa at Wembley, Lampard's managerial prowess was evident, earning him a three-year contract at Chelsea, where he replaced Maurizio Sarri.
At Stamford Bridge, he secured a fourth-place finish and an FA Cup final appearance for Chelsea, but a subsequent dip in form led to his dismissal in January 2021.
Following a year away from management, Lampard took over at Everton in 2022, only to be let go before the year was out.
Everton narrowly avoided relegation the previous season, but after suffering nine losses in their first 12 Premier League matches of the next campaign, Lampard was replaced by Sean Dyche. Chelsea brought back Lampard as their interim manager until the end of the 2023 season in April, following the dismissal of Graham Potter.
However, the former England midfielder only managed to secure one victory in his 11 games at the helm. Lampard, who boasts a 21-year playing career, is Chelsea's all-time top scorer with 211 goals from 648 appearances and his 106 England caps put him joint-seventh with Sir Bobby Charlton on the all-time list.