Frank Lampard has led Coventry City to the Championship title and Premier League promotion while speculation mounts over the head coach at his old club Chelsea, with Liam Rosenior under pressure
Frank Lampard gestures with his hands
Frank Lampard will be a Premier League head coach next season, one way or the other(Image: Dan Mullan, Getty Images)
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Frank Lampard has never spoken about returning to Chelsea from Coventry City – but that has not stopped others touting a third spell in the Stamford Bridge dugout for the coach. Liam Rosenior is facing mounting pressure after the Blues suffered a fifth successive Premier League defeat without finding the net.
They have not endured such a barren losing streak since 1912, the very same year the Titanic sank. Tottenham Hotspur are the only top-flight side with fewer points, two, compared to their five across the last nine matches.
That is precisely why the uncertainty over Rosenior's future continues to grow. The last time Chelsea made a managerial change this late in a season, parting ways with Graham Potter, they turned to Lampard as caretaker boss.
He was without a club at the time, having been dismissed by Everton two months prior, and managed just one victory from his 11 matches at the helm. Three years on, he has just guided the Sky Blues to the Championship title and top-flight promotion.
Yet, as recent speculation linking him to Bournemouth demonstrated, Lampard is once again attracting interest from Premier League clubs. He addressed that speculation at the time, insisting 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.
Frank Lampard celebrates with a Coventry City flag
Frank Lampard has won the Championship title and Premier League promotion with Coventry City(Image: Getty Images)
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Former team-mates also championed his credentials to replace Enzo Maresca in January, before Rosenior got the nod, while flying high with Coventry and topping the Championship table. Carlton Cole spoke on talkSPORT at the time.
He said: "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."
Nicky Butt similarly said 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 continued: "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."
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William Gallas also discussed in March of last year the prospect of Lampard returning to Chelsea at some point. 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."
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"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.
Coventry City head coach Frank Lampard and owner Doug King embrace
Coventry City owner Doug King has spoken openly about Frank Lampard's future at the club(Image: PA)
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"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.
"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."