Coventry City will have mixed feelings after a double revelation about manager Frank Lampard emerging from top sources in and around his boyhood club West Ham.
Hammers News exclusive
There’s plenty of history between West Ham and Frank Lampard – but reports this weekend have claimed there could be a future too, sparking major concerns at Coventry City.
A report this weekend has claimed the Hammers have lined up former Academy of Football graduate and current Coventry boss Lampard to potentially replace Graham Potter.
Lampard has done a wonderful job turning Coventry City around, leading them from the lower reaches of the Championship to the play-offs last season.
Coventry have also made an unbeaten start to the new Championship campaign which has seen them score 14 goals in just three matches following a 0-0 draw on the opening day.
West Ham fans are planning protests against their owners.
So the prospect of bringing in former hate figure Lampard as manager is a controversial one to say the least.
But the story of Lampard and West Ham is rarely reported on with any degree of accuracy down the years.
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Most Hammers fans of a certain vintage know the story well, but those outside the Hammers circle may have been misinformed by the media coverage of the Lampard-West Ham situation over time.
There has been no love lost between West Ham fans and the Academy graduate who was one of them as he grew up the son of club legend Frank Lampard senior.
Hammers supporters have taken a great deal of stick over their treatment of Lampard after he joined rivals Chelsea all those years ago.
But the truth has been twisted, misunderstood and misconstrued over time.
A young Frank Lampard celebrates scoring for West Ham as they beat Metz to win the Intertoto Cup
Photo by FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images
Suggestions Lampard benefitted from nepotism when he was an emerging talent in the West Ham Academy were clearly regrettable, but Lampard was no saint in the bitter relationship.
Lampard was a huge Hammers fan as a kid, watching his dad, Frank Senior, carve out his legend status.
The relationship between Lampard and the West Ham faithful turned sour when he pushed to be sold to Chelsea and then claimed he was not liked by supporters, when in fact it was a minority who gave him a hard time.
Coventry’s manager went on to criticise West Ham and the club’s fans on several occasions and received abuse from the terraces whenever the two clubs met.
The fact Lampard would kiss the Chelsea badge to antagonise Irons fans further when he inevitably scored against his old side did not help matters, nor did the proclamation that he is Chelsea’s biggest fan.
Coventry will have mixed feelings on major double Lampard revelation at West Ham
The reality was that most Hammers supporters were excited about Lampard when he was emerging in the first team, I should know because I was one of them.
Lampard was hailed as a top talent by the vast majority of West Ham fans when he became a fixture in the first team.
He was revered not reviled.
People also forget Lampard scored 10 goals or more in three of his four full seasons in the Hammers first team.
The fact is Lampard wanted out when his uncle Harry Redknapp and his dad, who was the assistant boss, were sacked by Terry Brown. While understandable reasoning from Lampard’s point of view perhaps, his exit has somehow been pinned on West Ham fans ever since.
Now reports have emerged linking Lampard with a sensational return to his boyhood club as the manager.
Derby County v Coventry City - Sky Bet Championship
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And Coventry will have mixed feelings on a major double Lampard revelation at West Ham.
Hammers News has spoken to two top sources in and around West Ham United about the sudden links to Lampard.
One being the top spokesman for West Ham’s board and the other a leading agent source.
Potter has struggled to convince in east London so far, winning just six of his 23 games in charge.
The 50-year-old has also overseen FA Cup and Carabao Cup exits at the first hurdle during his eight-month tenure.
The jury remains out on Potter, although he did pick up a morale-boosting 3-0 win at Forest last time out to lift the doom and gloom that had been engulfing West Ham.
That victory has eased pressure on Potter.
But with a tough run of games to come, the heat will be back on if the Hammers don’t keep the momentum and move up the Premier League table.
West Ham fans were hoping Potter’s approach and style of play would be exciting and modern.
It certainly was in parts at Forest, but that hasn’t been the case on the whole so far.
Therefore logic suggests Lampard would come into West Ham’s thinking given his ties to the club and the swashbuckling football Coventry are playing under him.
Lampard would be open to West Ham job as owners set record straight
Hammers fans still sing derogatory songs about Lampard to this day.
So it is hard to imagine the owners making themselves even more unpopular with some fans by moving for the 47-year-old.
But time is a great healer, and Frank Lampard has shown a lot more class when discussing West Ham in recent times.
Now Hammers News can reveal the truth about the sudden Lampard links.
Firstly the bad news for Coventry is that a leading agent source has revealed to Hammers News that Lampard would be interested in the West Ham job should it become available.
The source says Lampard sees being a manager as a totally different landscape when it comes to his former club.
With the move to the London Stadium making West Ham a different entity to the club he left as a boy and Premier League jobs hard to come by, Lampard would ‘back himself to do well’ and get fans onside.
Lampard would also get the true meaning of the West Ham way and what fans expect.
So if Potter does not last into the medium and long-term in east London, Lampard would be open to an east London return.
However, the good news for Coventry comes from the top spokesman for West Ham’s owners.
When asked about the claims the board have lined Lampard up as a potential successor to Potter following Coventry’s brilliant start to the new season, the answer was short, sharp and emphatic.
“Absolutely no truth,” the top spokesman for West Ham’s owners told Hammers News.
So while Lampard may put himself forward for the West Ham job in the future, the club are not actively considering replacing Potter with the Coventry boss, as has been claimed.