Coventry City boss Frank Lampard has spoken about how Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has helped him thrive in the dugout
Jake Bayliss
10:02, 07 May 2026
Frank Lampard and Pep Guardiola
Coventry City boss Frank Lampard has given credit to Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola(Image: PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images)
Frank Lampard has shared how time spent with Pep Guardiola influenced his coaching career.
The Coventry City boss will still be savouring the feeling of guiding the Sky Blues to the Championship title. City topped the table for the vast majority of the campaign and won the league by 11 points to end the club’s 25-year spell away from the top-flight.
While Lampard relished the recent promotion celebrations, he is aware that the club face a busy summer as City prepare for next season. The 47-year-old was a Premier League icon during his playing days, winning three league titles with Chelsea.
However, Lampard has admitted that his past experiences as a player do not shape his work as a coach. Instead, it was seeing how Manchester City boss Guardiola worked that gave him a sudden realisation at the start of his managerial career.
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“You go into coaching, it’s so different from being a player,” Lampard told The Times. “I was heavily influenced. I went to watch Pep for a few days. I was like, ‘Wow, he’s so energetic in the middle of the training pitch.’ And I went and watched a few other managers, Eddie Howe at one point.
“And then you kind of go, what does a manager look like? What do I want to be? Do I want to be this tactical genius? How do I want to deal with the players? And then when you do it, you can actually complicate the issue in your head.
“A lot of us are working in a different context to Pep. He deserves to be where he is, where he has this fantastic squad because of the work he’s done. But we’ve all got to work a different pathway.
“So to try and play like I think Pep would play with this lot wouldn’t necessarily work. So you’ve got to understand what you want to be.”
Frank Lampard with the Championship trophy
Lampard has returned Coventry City to the Premier League(Image: Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
Lampard instantly found himself under the spotlight as a manager as he guided Derby County to the Championship play-off final and later returned to his old club Chelsea. He reached the FA Cup final and qualified for the Champions League in his first season at Stamford Bridge but left after 18 months in charge.
He then spent a year battling relegation with Everton before eventually returning to management with the Sky Blues in November 2024. Replacing the legendary Mark Robins was a sizeable task but Lampard was determined to prove himself and spurred on by a fear of failure, a trait he picked up from his dad Frank Lampard Snr.
“It probably comes from an upbringing of a tough father who would always be very pushy with me: ‘You need to get faster, you need to do that, you won’t make it if you don’t,’” he explained. “That was probably ingrained in me. And then I had a mum who would always be very humble and bring me nicely back down to earth but taught manners and humility and those things.
“So I think when you have those things, the modern world is going to give you a lot of challenges and you’re very aware of them and I’ve also got quite a tough inside where I go, ‘Well, I want to fight back. I want to show that I’m better than that.’ I think I carry that with me everywhere in every job.”
Coventry City are back in the Premier League
The Coventry Telegraph has produced a stunning special edition marking the achievements of Frank Lampard and his men.
And to celebrate, the Coventry Telegraph has produced this stunning 48-page special edition marking the achievements of Frank Lampard and his men.
Since relegation in 2001, the Sky Blues have gone through many well-documented lows, but a quarter of a century later, free-scoring City have earned promotion in emphatic style.
And our bumper special edition is the perfect souvenir to remember that fantastic achievement by.
We'll have match reports, pics, and reaction from every kick of City's journey back to English football's promised land.
It's all here... the avalanche of goals pre-Christmas that made promotion look nailed on, the brief wobble that followed, and the revival under Lampard to consolidate their position at the top of the table.
Plus, Sky Blues writer Andy Turner will have pages and pages of in-depth analysis on the title-winning season, manager Lampard's success, key players, and what lies ahead for the club in the top flight.
Club historian Jim Brown will also share his fact-filled take on promotion, while there will be pictures and reports from the Sky Blues' joyful promotion celebrations.
Click here to buy
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