I FEEL THE HISTORY OF THIS CLUB, NOW LET’S MAKE SOME MORE
New boss Lampard eager to restore Derby pride
Frank Lampard does not know it but a conversation about derby County’s list of youth targets played a significant part in his being introduced as a manager yesterday.
The club thought the 40 names on it to be obscure. Lampard was well acquainted with no fewer than 30 of them.
The ghosts of ages past are everywhere in this place — from the statue of Brian Clough and peter Taylor on Unity plaza to the sepia-tinted images lining each corridor. and at lunchtime yesterday Lampard was reeling off the names of those who helped make those great sides: ‘Colin Todd, alan Hinton, kevin Hector, Franny Lee’ — viewed time and again in the football- obsessed Lampard household.
‘remember 101 Great Goals?’ he asked. ‘did you watch that? There were a few derby goals among them.’ Some mild amusement then ensued at the expense of Frank Lampard Snr, counsel and sounding board, who had faced some of those men.
‘He reeled off the names and forgot a few of them,’ Lampard confided. ‘He said, “Who was that small centre half who could play?” Oh, that will be Colin Todd!’
Serial premier League and European Cup winners generally display a greater sense of entitlement than this but nothing about Lampard’s journey through the game has been superficial.
He shared a significant anecdote about once being described by his father as a ‘ chubby,y, slow kid’ whose emergencece as an effective player was no foregone conclusion.ion.
‘I don’t have anyny ideas about beingg naturally talented,’ the new manager said.
That struggle to succeed occurred decades back but it now augurs welll for an individualal who says he willill stand or fall on his ability to demonstratestrate to players whoho toil that extra workk willill pay a dividend.
There is more than a touch of Jose mourinho in that philosophy, of course, and though Lampard insisted he would be nobody’s ‘clone’, he cited mourinho as the individual who made him feel he could be not merely good, but great.
‘The biggest thing he did for me was not a technical, tactical change,’ Lampard said. ‘It was a mindset change. a confidence thing. It was a belief. Yes, it changed my mindset.’
There is a fairly unmistakeable sense that Lampard would love to hire another who knew that mourinho quality. John Terry’s aston Villa contract conveniently exexpired yesterday anand the new mamanager did not close the door on the idea of capitalising. ‘I noticenoticed that,’ Lampard said.id ‘I hhaven’t’t spoken to John. I got a message from him this morning. at the moment he is in Greece on holiday.’
Few here are holding their breath, though. derby are no blank cheque — far from it — and anything approaching Terry’s £60,000-a-week deal at Villa would blow a hole in the budget.
Owner mel morris reiterated that derby would be putting their ‘financial house in order’.
These introductory occasions are always full of platitudes and promises. morris, who declared there would be time and patience for Lampard and no demand for immediate promotion, has parted company with seven managers in three years. Yet 39-year- old Lampard’s views on what a return to football means to him did seem to supersede talk about transfer budgets.
He has devoured more information on the game than ever in the past year — his reading of Johan Cruyff’s autobiography My Turn informed one television studio discussion on pep Guardiola — yet his description of the moment, when he stood in the vast, empty pride park stadium late on Wednesday night, sounded spiritual.
‘Being here with the floodlights and feeling the size of this club. It came through even more without any people here,’ he said, reeling off the number of derby seasonticket holders among city residents as one in 10. ‘That tells you something about the expectation,’ he said. ‘It’s a one-club city.’
In the week that Steven Gerrard starts as rangers manager, Lampard discussed what he feels is a new generation of former England players making up lost ground in the profession which foreign coaches have dominated.
‘You are seeing an era of players who have worked with a lot of different managers, with different technical ideas, formations, from all over the world… and who are now using it.’
But that conversation belonged to another day. When someone suggested to Lampard that this was his ‘kingdom’, he repeated the word and laughed.
The term ‘manager’s office’ had the same effect on him, as if he did not feel he had earned such an indulgence. ‘I looked into the manager’s office — which sounds weird, saying that — and I thought, “Yeah, I want to be here in 10 months’ time with success”, he said. ‘That’s when it will be an achievement.’