Three years after leaving Chelsea Frank Lampard is once again a Premier League manager - and he returns with a point to prove
21:57, 21 Apr 2026Updated 21:57, 21 Apr 2026
Coventry City manager Frank Lampard
Coventry City manager Frank Lampard(Image: Ryan Browne/Shutterstock)
Coventry City are back in the Premier League for the first time in 25 years, with Doug King and Frank Lampard uniting to carry the Sky Blues back to the Promised Land.
Not only that, City go up as champions and Lampard has his first piece of silverware as a manager.
When the 2026/27 season kicks off, he will be a 48-year-old Premier League coach who has earned his seat at the top table rather than been given it because of what he could do with a ball.
From starting out at Derby, to being given a very early shot at the Chelsea job, to trying his luck at Everton and then being minced in the Stamford Bridge meat-grinder when he returned, it’s been quite the journey.
Coventry Live has spoken to the reporters who have watched it all unfold and witnessed Lampard’s redemption at the CBS Arena.
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Chelsea
Bobby Vincent, Football London: Lampard's first spell at Chelsea is often looked back with much fondness now. There were really difficult circumstances for Lampard to contend with; the club's transfer ban being the main difficulty.
However, Lampard used that as a positive by putting his trust in a number of youth players, including the likes of Reece James, Mason Mount, Fikayo Tomori, Billy Gilmour, Marc Guehi, and others.
In his debut season, despite the difficulties, Lampard guided Chelsea into the Champions League. The club then strengthened when the transfer ban was lifted and started the season really well.
There was a poor run that led to Lampard being sacked, but many felt that was premature given all of the context. Lampard would have learned so much from his first stint at Chelsea, nothing more so than how brutal his beloved club can be when it comes to their managers.
His second stint at the club was a bit of a disaster. Lampard never should have taken the role to begin with but he did it with his love for Chelsea at the front of his mind. Thankfully, it has not damaged his managerial credentials too much and he is doing a stellar job at Coventry. You just know it will be Coventry vs Chelsea first game of next season.
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Everton
Chris Beesley, Liverpool Echo: Frank Lampard has spent most of his football life trying to shrug off Steven Gerrard comparisons, but if he’s playing the long game then he finally might be leaving his former England team-mate in the rear-view mirror.
Back in the noughties, the pair of them were the nation’s two dominant, goalscoring midfielders and trying to get the balance right with the pair of them in the national team, along with all the other big egos and rivalries from Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United at the time was a perennial headache for whoever was in charge of the Three Lions.
After the pair hung up their boots, Gerrard seemed to steal an early march by becoming the only man to have so far steered Rangers to the title following their comeback from financial collapse.
However, it’s fair to say that neither have experienced the kind of success in Premier League dugouts that they enjoyed during their playing days.
The way Aston Villa have thrived since Unai Emery replaced the Kop idol is pretty damning to Gerrard’s managerial credentials and he subsequently did himself no favours by disappearing to the desert and failing in Saudi Arabia.
The jury was out on Lampard after managing Chelsea – where he is of course a legend – under difficult circumstances, including an initial transfer embargo, but he bombed during his second spell at Stamford Bridge as caretaker boss. In between all of that was his own stint on Merseyside.
The first Londoner to manage Everton, he was initially a unifying force among a fractured fanbase town apart by former Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez’s short and unsweet tenure.
He got to witness the power of Goodison Park as his side recovered from being two-nil down to beat Crystal Palace 3-2 and escape relegation in what was their final home match of the season.
However, make no bones about it, Lampard was steering the Blues towards their first relegation in 72 years until he was sacked in late January 2023. Even with Sean Dyche in charge, Everton only avoided the drop by a single Abdoulaye Doucoure goal against Bournemouth on the last day despite posting the lowest equivalent points total in their entire history.
So, in that respect, Lampard – one of the smartest men in football – and a nice guy to boot, deserves credit and respect for the way he has resurrected his career at Coventry City and earned another crack at the Premier League. Perhaps he’ll have learned from his mistakes?
With the Blues, his teams often seemed to lack an identity, and it was difficult to see just what kind of football they were trying to play. He also shot himself in the foot by making an unprecedented 11 changes for a Carabao Cup tie at Bournemouth just four days before a mid-season break for the winter World Cup in Qatar and following a brace of chastening defeats at the Vitality Stadium, was unable to break out of the downward spiral that cost him his job.
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Coventry City
Brian Dick, Reach Football Correspondent: Lampard’s appointment at Coventry City was one of the more divisive decisions of recent times. Mark Robins had taken the Sky Blues so far and got them so close it was tempting to assume he’d complete the journey eventually.
Dismissing a manager of seven years and replacing him with another on whom the jury was still out was a big gamble and the response from fans was varied. Looking back now when CoventryLive broke the news the reactions from supporters covered the whole spectrum.
One wrote: ‘I can’t see what’s not to like’, another was more pragmatic and simply said: ‘Let’s move on now’. Others were far more hostile along the lines of ‘I definitely didn't want him and don’t think he will do any good’. From positive, to sceptical to downright hostile.
Eighty games, a season-and-a-half and 509 days on you’d struggle to find a single Coventry City fan who hasn’t been impressed by Lampard’s methodical improvement of the side.
While Doug King has continued transforming the feel around the football club off the field, Lampard has upheld his end of the bargain on it with a win ratio of above 53 per cent. In the snakepit that is the Championship and operating without parachute payments that’s very, very commendable.
He has achieved the promotion that was beyond him at Derby County and the tangible success that eluded him at Chelsea and Everton and he returns to the Premier League with a managerial CV that carries more weight than just being a very, very good ex-professional.
Indeed Lampard hinted at the personal development he feels he has undergone once promotion was secured at Ewood Park on Friday night: “You learn to keep a cooler ahead in those difficult little periods,” he said.
“When you're going away from home to QPR and the pitch is useless and you lose a game and you play poorly. You do learn to not get too down. Hopefully I've been a better manager in terms of being balanced with the boys to see that.”
That ‘bigger picture’ approach was evident at the turn of the year when the Sky Blues had their little wobble. Lampard held his course, picked as consistent a selection as he could through all the injuries and didn’t start lurching around for answers.
When Middlesbrough arrived at the CBS Arena having just deposed City at the top of the league, Lampard oversaw a performance of champions. Resilient at one end of the pitch and clinical at the other, his team started a run of eight wins from nine games.
It won’t be as easy next season, the pressure will be unrelenting and ‘wobbles’ will be difficult to survive but for once in his career, both as a player and a manager, Lampard will be a plucky under-dog and one that’s older and wiser for how he has managed both himself and Coventry City Football Club.
This team does have a clear identity and they’ll need to retain that - and recruit accordingly - to maintain the momentum at a higher level.
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Tactically Lampard will be fine, there’s not a formation or approach he won’t have seen and his squad will be eating out of his hand. If he can keep the Sky Blues up it will be yet another achievement and one that would put him back in the conversation for some big jobs.
For now though, he has his work cut out.
How will Lampard do in the Premier League? Have your say