PROFILE ON FRANK LAMPARD DERBY COUNTY MANAGER
Harry was right – and could be again!
FRANK Lampard was 18 when Harry Redknapp, his uncle and manager at West Ham, made a famous prophecy.
A truculent supporter had criticised the Hammers boss during a packed fans’ forum, arguing that Lampard “wasn’t good enough” for the first team.
“I didn’t want to say this in front of him,” said Redknapp, as Lampard, shy and embarrassed beneath a foppish fringe, hunched into the top table. “But Frank will go right to the very top. Right to the very top.
“His attitude is first class. He’s got strength. He can play. He can pass it. He can score goals. He’s got everything that’s needed to become a top class midfield player.”
And he did, although it was the trust and guidance of an altogether different manager that ultimately justified Redknapp’s faith.
Twenty-five when Jose Mourinho breezed into Stamford Bridge, Lampard was a full international and accomplished midfielder undermined only by a series of lingering misconceptions.
That he remained the misguided youth who’d made a sex tape in 2000 and, a year later, drunkenly abused American tourists in the wake of 9/11.
That he was overweight – the ‘Fat Frank’ of a thousand terrace jibes. That he only got in West Ham’s team because his uncle was the manager and his dad, Frank Snr, a coach.
Hammers fans were his staunchest critics; some even jeered when Lampard broke his leg in 1997 and he later admitted being “desperate” to beat the Irons when he returned following an £11m switch to Chelsea in 2001.
Returned
In reality, all Lampard lacked was consistency, maturity and a manager to focus his relentless determination. That man was Mourinho.
The Portuguese has rarely indulged a maverick. He prefers perspiration to inspiration, graft to craft, and dedication above all else. In Lampard, he found a star pupil.
At Brentwood School in Essex, Lampard had studied his way to straight A’s. “I wasn’t the most naturally intelligent kid in the class, but they pushed you hard – and, like most things, I didn’t want to let anyone down,” he told FFT last year. On the pitch, too, his skills were honed, not inherent. “He wasn’t the strongest or the quickest,” said Redknapp. “But even at 17, he was the most amazing trainer. When you see him smash it in from 28 yards, it’s not a coincidence. He would practise it day in and day out. It was like Tiger Woods, hitting shot after shot.” A few days after arriving at Chelsea in 2004, Mourinho pulled Lampard aside and told him he was the best midfielder in the world. “I certainly didn’t believe it at the time and I don’t know how much he did,” says Lampard. “But I thought ‘If my manager is saying that, I’m going to have to show him that he’s right’.” Lampard redoubled his efforts, mastering the simple and effective; shooting from range, reading a pass, timing a run into the 18-yard box.
By the end of the season, Lampard was a Premier League winner and PFA Player of the Year. By the end of 2006, he’d broken the 20-goal barrier for the first of many times and was second only to Ronaldinho in both the Ballon d’Or and FIFA World Player of the Year awards.
So began a decade at the pinnacle of the game. Three Premier League titles. Four FA Cups. A Champions League in 2012, the Europa League a year later.
By the time he retired in 2016, Lampard had accrued 12 major honours, 27 individual accolades and 177 Premier League goals - the fourth-highest tally ever.
“At his peak he would have got into any team in the world - he was an exceptional talent and a model professional,” said Xavi, the Barcelona great and a frequent adversary.
“There are some players who don’t get the full appreciation at the time they are playing, but Frank will be remembered as one of the best midfield players in the history of the game.
“Not only was he a complete midfield player but he had the scoring record of a striker. I think maybe we won’t see that goalscoring ability from a midfield player ever again.”
Failures
The only real failures came with England’s infamous ‘Golden Generation’; five tournaments, no semi-finals and a perception that he and Steven Gerrard got in each other’s way. But for a succession of England managers wedded to 4-4-2, the pair might have flourished.
Indeed, Lampard’s 106-cap England career will largely be remembered for a goal that wasn’t; the 20-yard strike that crossed the line but wasn’t given as England fell to Germany in 2010. As age yielded class and consistency, so it also brought confidence and forthrightness. He has spoken movingly about his parents, especially mother Pat, who died in 2008.
In 2009, he famously phoned LBC Radio to confront presenter James O’Brien during a segment discussing newspaper reports that Lampard’s children were living with former partner Elen Rivas in a small flat. That same year, MENSA testing performed at Chelsea revealed an IQ of 150 – putting Lampard in the UK’s top one per cent.
In recent years he has moved into punditry, panel shows and written a series of successful children’s books called Frankie’s Magic Football. Frankie was Pat’s name for her son.
All of which suggested management was an inevitability, and so it proved when, after earning his badges and coaching at Chelsea, the 40-year-old was appointed by Derby in May.
“Frank hasn’t spent the last 20 years with his eyes closed,” said Redknapp, who rang Derby chairman Mel Morris to advance his nephew’s credentials. “He’s an intelligent guy and he understands the game. He was the best professional I ever came across, by a million miles. He’s going to take that into management and I’m sure he’ll be a success.”
And Harry should know.