Frank Lampard winning the Championship title and Premier League promotion with Coventry City could cause Chelsea to consider a return if they sack Liam Rosenior
Matthew Abbott
13:00, 22 Apr 2026
Frank Lampard waving a Coventry City scarf above his head
Frank Lampard celebrated winning the Championship title in style(Image: Getty Images)
Frank Lampard has never mentioned returning to Chelsea - but that does not stop others talking up a third stint in the Stamford Bridge dugout for Coventry City's head coach.
Liam Rosenior is under increasing pressure after the Blues lost a fifth consecutive Premier League match without scoring. They have not got on such a losing run without mustering a single goal since 1912, the same year the Titanic sank.
Tottenham Hotspur are the only top-flight team who have fewer points, two, than their five over the last nine matches. That is why the uncertainty surrounding Rosenior's future is rising.
The last time they made a change at this late stage of a season to part ways with Graham Potter, they appointed Lampard as caretaker manager. However, he was out of work at the time, having been sacked by Everton two months earlier, and won just one of his 11 games in charge.
Three years on, he has just won the Championship title and Premier League promotion with Sky Blues. However, as recent links to Bournemouth showed, Lampard is again sought after in the top tier.
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He spoke about that speculation at the time and said he made "nothing" of it. Lampard said: "Nothing, because I have been in this game long enough to know that those things happen and very quickly they change, or whatever, and absolutely my focus is on us."
"I want to win this league now after what we've done through the season because it will be a slight anti-climax feeling for myself if we didn't get the job done there, and that's a good pressure to have at this point, so I want to do that, and nothing else is taking me anywhere away than thinking about that."
Former teammates also talked up his chances of replacing Enzo Maresca in January, before Rosenior was appointed. Carlton Cole said on talkSPORT at the time: "I like Lampard as a Chelsea manager. The reason why I'm saying that is because I know he knows the club inside out; he knows the culture.
"He didn't do too badly in his first outing. Imagine if he gets backed, but that's another thing. If he were to come in, they couldn't dictate to him what to do; that's what none of them wants."
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Nicky Butt similarly asked on The Good, The Bad and The Football podcast: "Do you think if Frank Lampard gets promotion with Coventry, they could go back in for Frank?" He said: "It wouldn't be a stupid thing to go and get Frank Lampard back in charge of Chelsea for me.
"He's done a great job at Coventry. He's got a bit more experience now, and he's probably made a few mistakes. He would be a totally different manager now. He would find it easier working with better players and easier for him to get his messages across to more technical players. I think he'd do an amazing job, I really do."
William Gallas also spoke in March of last year about Lampard returning to Chelsea again one day. He said: "After what happened to Frank Lampard, we had to be patient.
"He is doing well right now with Coventry City; if he can give them the chance to get into the Premier League, that would be the best thing for him.
"But you never know, he could go back. That's why it's good for him to improve and do something really good with another Premier League team in the future, maybe helping them into Europe in the Europa League or Champions League. That would give him more experience, and then one day, we could see him at Chelsea again, but right now, I don't know. The best thing that can happen for him now is for Coventry City to go to the Premier League; that will be the best story for him."
Coventry City head coach Frank Lampard and owner Doug King celebrate promotion to the Premier League
Coventry City head coach Frank Lampard and owner Doug King celebrate promotion to the Premier League (Image: PA)
Doug King spoke at length to Coventry Live about Lampard's future in late March. He said: "Well, look, Frank's put himself back in the arena and we've had a great ride.
"If we can top it off with going where we want to top it off to then he will have achieved a great thing. Obviously, he's been at top levels and won great championships and great cups, but I think even he will look at this as a huge achievement, you know, a non-parachute team that's not been in the Premier League for 25 years.
"Playing how we're playing, the goals we're scoring, how we're doing it in terms of not just scraping it in with one-nil and playing attritional football, but rather doing it in a really attractive manner, I think he'll be very proud of that, and I think he's very comfortable and very happy in his environment at Coventry, and I think he really enjoys it.
"Now obviously, as in anything, decisions have to be made in people's lives, and I can't speak for Frank. Obviously, he's under contract with us, and I'm sure he wants to lead us to the Premier League and manage us in the Premier League, and maybe for the next hundreds of years at Coventry because he loves it forever.
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"But look, I don't even look forward on it, I think everybody's lives change, we all get older, we all have different things in our lives, and what are our ambitions, and they're the things that you keep private. But for me, he came in, he put himself into the picture, we obviously gave him that opportunity, and it's worked incredibly well for us both, so, you know, that's great."