Made in Chelsea, matured in Derby LAMPS JUST NEEDS TIME AND PATIENCE TO BOSS IT

MARTIN O’NEILL and Frank Clark were probably the best former players I played under.

European Cup winners both, they had a heightened understanding of what made players tick and knew the tricks of the trade better than my other bosses.

They knew automatically when someone was swinging the lead and it never really surprised me that they were the two managers who got the best out of my ability.

I know there’s the argument that you don’t have to have been a great player to be a great manager.

Innovation

Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger didn’t have glittering playing careers, and Arrigo Sacchi didn’t even play professionally.

I also know that Sir Bobby Charlton and Bobby Moore, two of the finest players England has ever produced, struggled in management.

But I’ve always felt that 99.9 per cent of innovation in football comes from people who have played the game at a very high level.

Take Johan Cruyff and Pep Guardiola, for example. Like Cruyff and Guardiola, Frank Lampard won just about everything there is to win as a player when he was at Chelsea and now follows them into management.

It will be fascinating to see how he gets on at Derby and I’ve no doubt that he has the right personality for the job.

What we need to find out now, however, is whether or not he has the ability at key times in games and during the season to be able to make changes, and whether he has the ability to buy the right kind of players.

Lampard won’t be expected to get Derby, who kick off the Championship season with Reading on Friday, promoted automatically in his first season as a boss.

But the bare minimum is going to be the play-offs and I’d imagine that has been made clear to him by Rams owner Mel Morris.

With a fair wind, he could possibly nail down one of those top two positions but that will be very difficult when you look at Stoke’s huge spending, Aston Villa’s new money, and how many other big clubs like Derby there are in the division.

Whatever happens – even if they finish 12th, 13th or 14th, or disaster harnessed in the new role. For strikes and they are relegated – Morris Lampard, it will be about taking what has to be patient. he has learned in his playing days into

Sam Allardyce, Tony Pulis and a new experience. But it is about being Lampard’s uncle, Harry Redknapp, ballsy, too. didn’t all get to 1,000 games in management I’m sure he’s not a shy, retiring guy, because their sides were brilliant but he does come across as a nice bloke in every game, or because they never and that can’t always be the case when went through rough patches. you’re the gaffer. When you’re the

They got there through experience gaffer sometimes you have to be the and you can’t get that if you get sacked bad guy. after a couple of months. He’ll need to bare his teeth in the

Morris isn’t the most patient man dressing room and not take fools but he holds Derby County dearly and gladly. wants them to be successful. His assistant Jody Morris has some

And for that you sometimes have to spite in him but you have to show that be hold steady even if everything is as a manager as well. telling you not to. And as long as he gets the support from his coaching staff when he’s having his down days and self-doubt, and from the chairman, then he will be able to make a good fist of the job.

There’s no doubt there’s a lot more pressure on people who were really good players to do well in management because the expectation is greater.

But if he is given patience, a year, 18 months, and allowed to flourish then there’s no reason he won’t do well and get the best out of his players as O’neill and Clark did with me.

Qualities

Unfortunately, football is littered with owners and chairmen who see Leicester win the Premier League, who see Wolves go up, and think: ‘Well, if it’s that easy for them then it’s that easy for us,’ but of course it isn’t.

So even if it is a difficult season for Derby, he has to stick with Lampard because the qualities he showed in his interview and which leapt from his CV won’t just have disappeared.

They just need the chance to be

Andre Schurrle joining Fulham on a two-year loan… you what? What do these deals even mean now? It makes no sense. Why not just buy him? Loan deals should be for three months or six

months and no longer, it’s time for a tightening up and recalibration of the rules.