Chelsea hired a coach for Real Madrid
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The management of Chelsea, which occupies only 11th place in the championship of England, but is preparing for the quarter-finals of the Champions League against Real Madrid, made a rather unexpected move – they returned Frank Lampard to the post of head coach. At the moment, the top scorer in the history of the London club, who already led it from 2019 to 2021, but has not yet achieved any success in the coaching field, looks like a temporary figure. Lampard’s last job was at Everton, which under his leadership has become one of the outsiders of the English Premier League (EPL).
Chelsea announced on signing a contract until the end of the season with head coach Frank Lampard. The 44-year-old Englishman has turned out to be the fourth specialist who will manage the London club during this season. He started under Thomas Tuchel, who was replaced by Graham Potter in September, dismissed, in turn, April 3. And for the previous Premier League match, which ended in a goalless draw with Liverpool, Chelsea was taken out by the Spaniard Bruno Saltor.
In general, the current season is developing for Chelsea catastrophically unsuccessful. With nine rounds left in the Premier League, he is in 11th place, 11 points behind fourth place, the Champions League zone.
In addition, the Londoners have already dropped out of the FA Cup and the English League Cup. Therefore, the only chance to save the season for them is the Champions League, in which they reached the quarter-finals and on Wednesday they will play their first meeting at this stage with Real Madrid.
In this situation, the appointment of Frank Lampard comes as a surprise. His previous spell at Chelsea, from the summer of 2019 to the winter of 2021, turned out to be extremely incomprehensible, despite the fact that the potential of that squad, as it turned out a little later, was huge. A side that had only finished ninth in the Premier League under Lampard, a few months after his sacking, with Thomas Tuchel, not only finished fourth in the league, but won Champions League. Frank Lampard’s next job was Everton. Having resorted to his services in January 2022 for exactly 12 months, a well-known club from Liverpool with a fairly strong selection of performers is now forced to fight for survival.
However, the decision of the current owners of Chelsea, Todd Beuly and Bedad Egbali, can still be explained. Obviously, Saltor looked like an extremely weak figure. When he entered Potter’s headquarters seven months ago, he hadn’t even had the bare minimum of coaching experience.
Meanwhile, before the confrontation with Real Madrid, the Londoners needed a specialist who, on the one hand, would have certain qualifications, and on the other hand, would be ready to take the hit in case of a completely possible fiasco.
And the legendary Lampard, who scored 211 goals for Chelsea, which is a club record and is still a fan favorite, fits the role perfectly.
The paradox of the current situation is that neither Chelsea nor Frank Lampard have practically nothing to lose. Both can buy a lot – if, of course, the new coaching staff miraculously manage to quickly improve the team’s game and ensure the result in the Champions League. If Lampard does not succeed, then in the summer his contract simply will not be renewed.
In the meantime, Böli and Egbali have the opportunity to thoroughly consider other, more high-profile candidates. Their list includes the German Julian Nagelsmann, who recently lost his job at Bayern, and the Spaniard Luis Enrique, who worked for the Spanish national team and Barcelona, and recently, according to the British press, visited London and presented his club development plan. In the same list, according to Daily Mail, is Antonio Conte, released in March from work at Tottenham. He led Chelsea to the Premier League title in the spring of 2018. Be that as it may, while welcoming Lampard’s return in an official statement, the Chelsea hosts stressed that “the rigorous process of finding a permanent head coach” is ongoing.
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