Frank may still be England material, it’s not fatal blow

THE world is now Frank Lampard’s oyster, the best moment of his post-playing career has arrived.

Get the inevitable Chelsea sacking out of the way early doors. Should work a treat.

Now he can go looking for a club that might give him a decent crack at it.

Given his background, some labelled the Stamford Bridge position Lampard’s dream job?

Unless you are only in it for the fat pay-off, which is nice, how can it be a dream working for an owner with the patience of a cold and hungry executioner?

How can it be a dream working for a board that bombs coaches straight after a morale-lifting win in a competition that took the club to Wembley last season?

Working for Roman Abramovich (right) is a dream only if you like your severance cheques to be in the millions.

This latest sacking should not come as a surprise and, let’s face it, when judged by any metrics of Abramovich’s regime, Lampard was a goner, sooner or later.

Put it this way, Chelsea managers with far better records than Lampard’s have been ingloriously sacked by Abramovich.

This is a club that, in the 21st century, has appointed Champions League winners, World Cup winners, winners of elite domestic leagues.

Lampard failed to get

Derby County out of the Championship, he was a 12-month rookie having to learn on the Chelsea job.

While he could go down the television route and become Sky’s answer to Gary Lineker, Lampard is likely to want to pursue his managerial ambitions.

Initially, you might wonder where he could go from here but plenty of offers will materialise.

No, they will not be Big Six opportunities but Lampard is bright, eloquent, is a good ambassador for a club, has good contacts and will guarantee commercial exposure.

We are just not sure how good a coach and manager he is yet.

Away from the pressures of a ‘dream job’ and a hire-andfire obsessive, Lampard might flourish and develop into a very good manager.

He might be a slow burner who becomes a future England manager, or it might transpire he is just not cut out for the business.

One thing is for certain – this is no fatal blow to his managerial ambitions.

Every manager at

Chelsea, including the incoming Thomas Tuchel, is a P45-in-waiting.

Now Frank has got his out of the way pretty sharpish, he can learn his trade under someone slightly less ruthless who thinks buying and selling, hiring and firing, is not the only way to run a football club.