Premier League relegation with Everton could end Frank Lampard’s managerial career
Frank Lampard’s managerial career could rely entirely on whether Everton are relegated from the Premier League over the next few weeks.
The Toffees currently sit three points above the relegation places thanks to the 1-0 win over Newcastle before the international break.
But survival is still hanging in the balance considering the punishing set of fixtures left before the end of the season.
The 43-year-old’s coaching career is at a major crossroads, with the potential damage a relegation would bring counterbalanced by the considerable achievement survival would represent.
Despite being in charge at a third club since his retirement after a glittering playing career, there remains a feeling that it is unclear how suited he is to management.
Jury’s out
His credentials on the pitch are beyond question, but there is a long list of world-class players who tried their hand at management before discovering they weren’t cut out for it.
For every Johan Cruyff there is a Gary Neville. One arguably surpassed his influence on the game after becoming coach at Ajax and Barcelona, while the other’s time in charge at Valencia is the punchline to a highly successful career as a Manchester United player and Sky Sports pundit.
Fans were largely pleased to see Lampard installed as boss at Goodison but there was an element of who he wasn’t as much as who he was to that.
The universally unpopular Rafael Benitez had been sacked, and it appeared Farhad Moshiri was going to bring in Vitor Pereira, so Lampard was a positive figure in comparison.
At Derby his track record is seen as good or bad depending on who you ask.
Supporters point to reaching the playoffs and defeating Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds who would be champions a year later, while detractors say he simply replicated Gary Rowett’s performance but with a much more expensive squad.
Similarly at Chelsea, a job that came earlier than he would have chosen, Champions League qualification and an FA Cup final appearance were good, but no trophies and a worrying slide in his second season weren’t.
Despite being linked to numerous jobs after his sacking from Stamford Bridge he was out of work for a year before arriving at Everton, suggesting doubt over his suitability.
He was perhaps lucky to get such a big job, but only modest improvement to a struggling team has followed.
He may point to the mitigating factors of how poor the form was under his predecessor and a lack of time in the January transfer window.
But the transfer ban at Chelsea was held up as a big reason why he was doing well there, and led to his one true success of bringing through a generation of academy products.
Once he was backed in the market with big money he wasn’t able to get a consistent tune out of a squad that subsequently won the Champions League under Thomas Tuchel.
Save the Toffees from the drop and he will have proven himself by doing his primary job.
Fail to do so and his future as a coach becomes uncertain, as the problems it could bring Everton would make it a massive job to engineer an immediate return to the top flight.
In other Everton news, James Rodriguez headlines some big names that may have already improved the worrying wage bill at Goodison.
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