FRANK AND FALTERS
Lampard must feel like being left in a darkened room to wonder where it all went wrong.
And even someone with an IQ of 150 and degree in Latin might struggle to come up with the answers.
But one of them is obvious.
Great footballers don’t always make great managers.
If Lampard could rewind his managerial career back to 2018 when he landed his first job, he could have done worse than consider what happened to his former England teammate Gary Neville (inset).
Neville, who was also one of the finest players of his generation, dipped his toe in top level management only to find out he was out of his depth.
He became assistant to England boss Roy Hodgson in 2012 and his big mate David Beckham described it as a “shrewd move”.
But ‘Golden Balls’ was badly wrong — because it wasn’t.
England’s 2014 World Cup campaign was a disaster for them, while Euro 2016 was even worse. Undeterred, he took on another managerial role at Valencia and started with nine games without a win.
He was sacked in 2016 within four months of taking charge — and hasn’t been in the dugout since.
Neville has now found his niche in life postplaying, becoming one of the most high-profile and respected pundits in the game.
It’s safe to assume Lampard could now choose a similar path off the pitch as well, having almost mirrored Neville’s failed career in management.
Lampard took charge of Derby and led them from sixth to sixth in the Championship, before getting them to the 2019 play-off final only to lose to Aston Villa.
Chelsea came calling that summer and he couldn’t resist.
But he lasted 18 months before getting sacked, despite spending a fortune on superstar signings.
Invited
Even a 12-month break from the game didn’t make Lampard see the light and management lured him back when Everton invited him in. Let’s be clear.
Lampard is a likeable and ambitious bloke who perhaps didn’t appreciate the scale of the carnage unfolding before him at Goodison Park.
And he won’t be the last victim of Farhad Moshiri’s ruinous ownership.
But the circumstances don’t change the fact that he’s now managed three clubs in five seasons, achieved little and found himself collateral damage once again.
Lampard is now in serious danger of being a washed-up boss at the ripe old age of 44.
When it comes to top-level management football has no respect for reputations, because glittering careers on the pitch winning countless trophies guarantee zilch.
Steven Gerrard discovered this earlier this season when Aston Villa sacked him, while Wayne Rooney has also taken the brave step into management but continues to struggle to forge the reputation he would like to.
One of the strange quirks of the game is that some of the greatest bosses of all had mediocre playing careers.
Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho both made less than a 100 professional appearances but will go down as two of the best of all time along with Alex Ferguson, who won very little with his boots on but went on to land a staggering 49 trophies as a manager with just three clubs.
The longer playing greats like
Lampard continue to flounder, the more Alan Hansen’s decision years ago to choose the studio instead of the dugout appears to be one of genius.