As Lamps taps into Uncle Harry’s brain to help beat drop, it’s a... FAMILY AFFAIR
FRANK LAMPARD is keeping it in the family as he tries to save Everton from the drop.
The Goodison boss has admitted he’s having regular chats with his uncle, Harry Redknapp, as he battles to keep the Toffees in the Premier League.
Redknapp, dad to Frank’s cousin Jamie, was in his own relegation fight as Portsmouth boss in 2006.
Pompey looked doomed until they picked up six wins in nine matches to claw themselves to safety with a game to spare.
While nephew Frank clinched the Premier League title as Chelsea beat Manchester United 3-0 at Stamford Bridge a week before the end of the season, 200 miles away in the North West, Redknapp was pulling off a miracle as Portsmouth beat Wigan 2-1 to stave off relegation.
And with phone chats to Uncle ’Arry (right) Lampard has been tapping into Redknapp’s experience of Portsmouth’s against-allodds success as he plots his own Great Escape.
“I regularly speak to
Harry. I have contact with him and will always speak to him no matter what the situation,” said
Lampard, who today faces Chelsea and
Thomas Tuchel, the manager who replaced him at Stamford Bridge 15 months ago. “He is always a great voice of reason and experience.
“But no, I’m not telling you what he says because it will be, ‘Harry told me to do this or that!’
“Anyway it’s not that kind of advice. I chat to Harry casually and some things he says you think, ‘Yeah, of course.’ “For me, speaking to people like Harry you find the best things they say are really simple.
“And I’m not trying to put Harry down because it is the opposite because the smartest managers always make things sound simple.
“You might get some nuggets from those chats. But in terms of what the nuggets are I’ll keep them to myself! “I’ve also got people around me like Paul Clement who is on my staff and has been in this position before at Swansea.” With six games left the pressure is beginning to bite hard with drop rivals Burnley picking up wins.
But Lampard admits he can’t get too wrapped up in the emotion being felt by nervous Evertonians. He added: “I understand what is on it so there is a real level of intensity for that but I am the first one who has to stay calm and focused on it.”
THE
Todd Boehly-led consortium which leads the race to buy Chelsea has around a week to sign a purchase agreement if they want to beat Britain’s richest man to the acquisition of the club.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe made a dramatic late bid to buy the Blues from Roman Abramovich on Friday for £4.25billion.
His bid has been and will continue to be given serious consideration.
But Boehly’s group have been told they have been given preferred bidder status by the Raine Group, the merchant bankers handling the club’s sale.
And they now have a short window, believed to be a week, to get to the point at which a purchase agreement can be signed and get the deal sealed.