Frank Lampard, Everton Gamble on Each Other

It didn't end well for Lampard at Chelsea, and scatterbrained Everton is in need of stability to get out of a relegation scrap. The hope is for a mutually beneficial future.

The end for Frank Lampard at Chelsea really came away at Arsenal on Boxing Day 2020. His side, yet again, looked desperately vulnerable on the break in losing 3–1 and then, critically, he blamed the defeat on his players afterwards. Whatever faith his squad still had in him was gone in that moment. Roman Abramovich rarely hesitates before sacking a manager, and when Lampard was dismissed a month later, it felt overdue.

There were still loyalists who had loved him as a player who clung blindly to the faith that he might somehow be able to turn around a season that saw the club sink to ninth in the Premier League after a summer investment of $300 million, but the impact of Thomas Tuchel was immediate. By the end of the season Chelsea looked like a far more coherent side, beating Manchester City three times across different competitions, the last of which came in the Champions League final.

But to fail at Chelsea does not mean Lampard is a terrible manager and will necessarily fail elsewhere, and he's been given another chance after being hired by Everton on Monday. His résumé perhaps is a little thin for a club of Everton’s aspirations, but Everton has become such a basket case. Owner Farhad Moshiri has burned through six managers since taking over in early 2016, and it is almost forced to gamble. What proven manager would want to go there? Of those six, Carlo Ancelotti is the only one not to have been sacked, understandably preferring the Bernabeu to Goodison Park; Everton may be one of the few clubs in the world compared to Real Madrid that offers a manager some measure of security.

Daniel Leal-Olivas/PA Images/Imago Images

It shouldn't be forgotten that Lampard’s first season as a manager was encouraging. He led Derby to sixth in the second-tier Championship before defeat in the promotion playoff final. Taking over Chelsea in the middle of a transfer ban, he oversaw the rise of a number of young talents—Mason Mount, Reece James, Tammy Abraham, Fikayo Tomori—and in his first season led the club to fourth (albeit 33 points behind the champion, Liverpool).

There were, though, two major doubts. Chelsea kept conceding on the break and it kept conceding from set plays, both of which are indicators of a lack of effective work on the training field. He was never able to get the balance of the midfield right. Chelsea could kill games, but if it did it tended to draw 0–0.

The second doubt became more pronounced in his second season at Stamford Bridge, which was his relationship with senior players—most notably Antonio Rüdiger and Marcos Alonso. It was clear by the end that the squad had run out of patience. Lampard has always been sensitive to criticism, but the attacks on journalists in press conferences in his final days suggested just how thin-skinned he had become. He needs not merely to be able to ignore criticism but also to embrace it, to defend his players in public rather than trying to deflect blame.

Tactical elements can be learned, or at least deferred to coaches. Lampard has chosen not to take his former No. 2, Jody Morris, with him, but he has persuaded Joe Edwards to leave Chelsea and hopes also to appoint Ancelotti’s long-time assistant Paul Clement. Issues of personality may be harder to correct.

And Everton is not, in any sense, an easy club. Memories of its days as a league champion, as one of the Big Five that led the Premier League breakaway, remain fresh even if there has not been a trophy since 1995. There is a new stadium, finally, under construction and a demanding fanbase. And yet Everton lies 16th in the league, four points above the relegation zone with an aging squad patched together from the broken visions of half a dozen different managers.

A club of Everton’s stature needs to buy young, develop players and sell them on (a loan for Donny van de Beek and a permanent transfer for Dele Alli appear likely on deadline day). It’s unromantic and sad, but it’s the reality of the modern game. The likes of Leicester have accepted that; Everton still has not, buying players at or near their peaks and then watching their value plummet. But there is no vision or planning at the club, and neither Steve Walsh nor Marcel Brands, the two sporting directors who have tried, have been able to change that. It’s such a mess that Wayne Rooney, who began his playing career at the club and is thriving at Derby, refused even an interview.

There seems to be very little football judgment at all, with Moshiri keen to listen to agent Kia Joorabchian, something that has increasingly frustrated fans. The reports that Moshiri was about to appoint Vítor Pereira, a Joorabchian client, provoked such a backlash that the club seemingly changed course.

Lampard, as such, represents the popular choice. But this is a gamble for both parties: A manager who desperately needs to re-establish his reputation and a club that is spinning wildly out of control.