Jamie Redknapp tips Frank Lampard for success as England manager despite Everton role
Jamie Redknapp feels Everton boss Frank Lampard could have done as good a job as Gareth Southgate as England manager at the World Cup in Qatar this winter.
The Three Lions got through to the quarter-finals before being eliminated by France inside 90 minutes, something many fans and pundits predicted prior to the tournament.
Lampard was linked with the role of succeeding Southgate when he was deciding his future, although he is now going to stay until 2024, and Sky Sports pundit Redknapp believes England didn’t do well at the World Cup and any manager, including Lampard, could have done as good a job as him.
“Any young, English, Premier League manager worth their salt would have gotten England to the quarter-finals, when you look at the teams we’ve played,” he said to Sky Sports (20 December).
“In the 2018 World Cup we had a lot of byes. We play one good team in Croatia and they beat us. We play a decent team at this World Cup and they beat us.
“In the last Euros, we beat two decent sides in Denmark and Germany – yet neither got out of their group in this World Cup.
“If you looked at the candidates right now, you’d see Graham Potter at Chelsea, Eddie Howe is doing a great job at Newcastle. Frank Lampard, who has a great history of playing for England, is at Everton. It didn’t work out for Steven Gerrard at Aston Villa, but any of these could have done as good a job as Southgate.”
PR job
Whether you believe that Southgate did a good or bad job at the World Cup is up for opinion, because England’s performance in the game that they went out in was actually quite good.
However hitting the quarter-finals after beating Iran, Wales and Senegal, all teams that England are supposed to beat, Redknapp isn’t wrong about what he’s saying.
The manager against opposition like that shouldn’t matter because England have got so much more quality than them, they should be able to claim wins.
This seems like a bit of a PR spin for Lampard to get the job in the future though, as it’s no coincidence that his name keeps coming up and his cousin is now talking him up for doing a job that he probably hasn’t earned based on his career to date.
Keep him away from that job for now because he’s doing well at Goodison, and Everton need him fully focused on the task at hand or things could quickly spiral badly and in the position we’re in right now that’s the last thing we need.