London: Frank Lampard was fired Monday by Chelsea halfway through his second season in charge of the London club. Chelsea have lost five of their last eight Premier League games and dropped to ninth place, despite Frank Lampard benefiting from nearly $300 million spent on new players for this season. Chelsea said the performances had not shown ‘any clear path to sustained improvement’. So it made a change of managers necessary.
““This was a very difficult decision for the club. I have an excellent personal relationship with Frank (Lampard) and I have the utmost respect for him,” owner Roman Abramovich said. He is a man of great integrity and has the highest of work ethics. However, under current circumstances we believe it is best to change managers. I would like to thank Frank for his work as head coach and wish him every success in the future. He is an important icon of this great club and his status here remains undiminished,” Abramovich added.
As the pressure has grown, the cracks were showing ahead of this weekend’s FA Cup win over Luton. Then Lampard hit out at perceived negative coverage of the club.
But his shortcomings of a fledging coaching career were being exposed. Sentimentality counted for little despite being instrumental to the trophy-laden revival of the club as a player since the takeover by Abramovich in 2003.
Chelsea brought back its midfield great as coach in 2019 despite him having only a single season’s experience in management in the second division with Derby. Lampard achieved Champions League qualification in his first season by securing a fourth-place finish in the Premier League. The rush to dismiss Lampard is indicative of the impatience shown by Abramovich, particularly when the team are slipping away from the Champions League spots.
Lampard is a Chelsea great after scoring 211 goals from central midfield from 2001-14. In this period he won every major honour at the club including three Premier League titles and the Champions League.