‘MANAGEMENT? AT TIMES, BUT IT IT’S STRESSFUL IS ENJOYABLE...’
BY THE second week of next month Frank Lampard will know what he’s got at Derby – a Championship promotion team or yet another dud.
On Boxing Day, Derby are away to Sheffield United, then it’s Norwich away three days later, Middlesbrough at home on New Year’s Day and, after the FA Cup against Southampton, Leeds away. It’s a Who’s Who of the top end of the Championship. Derby’s record against the better teams so far is inconsistent, beaten 4-1 at Leeds for instance but 4-1 winners at West Brom. They’ve drawn at home with Norwich, beaten Sheffield United, drawn at Boro, were hammered 3-0 at home by Aston Villa and were goalless with Nottingham Forest six days ago. It’s hard to draw conclusions. In the past it has been clear, Derby will flatter only to deceive you. They will do well and then ultimately flop in the promotion race. Lampard, in his first managerial job after a stellar playing career, cleared out a lot of that history when he took over at Derby in the summer, replacing ageing players carrying the scars of previous losing battles with bright younger players, even ones naive to what the Championship would throw at them. “I am full on. It can be stressful but it’s enjoyable,” says Lampard.
“I had a long career, I know the game and what it can do to you, but as an individual you can never quite gauge what it feels like on this side.
“It’s taxing, it’s testing, you learn every day. You make some mistakes and you try and improve on them the next time.
“When you see an improvement in a player or in the team it makes you happy. If you see the reverse you get pretty upset.
Game
“That’s the game of being a manager. I’m finding out about it.”
The average age of Derby’s team has dropped from 30 to 25 and ahead of yesterday’s home game with Bristol City that new side was fourth.
There were signs in the goalless draw with Forest on Monday, though, that youth might be burning out a bit. Harry Wilson, 21, wasn’t as dangerous. Mason Mount, 19, was not as effective, Jack Marriott, 24, didn’t look like getting a goal.
Young players will excite and then they can plateau, especially in the Championship where the
games come at you like machine gun fire.
“If you had offered me at the start of the season where we are, in being close to the top, then I’d have taken it,” admits Lampard.
“It was a big transition. There were a lot of new players and some of them young players. There was a lot of work to do.
“We should be happy at where we are. On the other hand, we should be wanting more. I think we could have had a few more points in the bag.
“Nothing’s done yet. We are at halfway in the season. The next group of games we have then, come January, we can start saying where we are and what might happen at the end of the season.”
Traditionally over the past few seasons, it’s about now that Derby’s manager would be looking to bring in players to strengthen the promotion push.
Optimism would be as bright as kids taking their list of presents to Father Christmas as Derby looked at the best that was out there and went and bought it. It won’t happen this season. The Derby money has gone. Lampard has restructured his team around loans and all he will get in January is another loan. “There won’t be a lot we can do in the January transfer window because we are not in the position of other teams in this league,” says Lampard frankly. “It depends on the club, I can’t go against the economics of it. “It will depend as well if we can reduce the squad in areas and then add to it. It won’t be big numbers, I can tell you that, it will probably be loans. “If we can d o something it will have to be absolutely spot on and improve us because small improvements may help us in the long- run.”
When he took the job Lampard was told by owner Mel Morris that prize striker Matej Vydra had to go, Derby couldn’t afford him anymore.
Sell Vydra and Lampard would have that money, and the saving on his wages, to work with. Don’t sell Vydra and, well, you are on your own, pal.
Vydra went to Burnley for around £11m and took his 21 goals from last season with him.
Bargain
Lampard invested £5m in Marriott from Peterborough and so far he’s got eight goals, including scoring against Manchester United and Chelsea in the Carabao Cup, and his worth has risen to what, £9m?
Derby are no longer like new car buyers, purchasing at the top end of the market and seeing depreciation slashing the value the moment it leaves the forecourt.
They are much cannier, looking for the bargain, polishing it up into something in demand.
“Mount is not at his absolute best at the moment, I get that one,” says Lampard. “But he is a top young player and we have to accept that every top young player is going to have periods like this. It’s not a problem, he will come good.”
Lampard has patience, Morris now has some as well, thankfully, having spent £100m and had six managers, one of them twice, in his three years of ownership.
The fans, too, after so many unsuccessful promotion bids, have a patience with this new-look way of doing it.
This is the sixth successive season Derby have been in the promotion shake-up and it will be 11 years since they’ve been a Premier League club.
Lampard has inherited all this angst.
“Listen, I don’t know for what reasons it hasn’t gone for Derby in those last five years but we know we are in the race,” he says.
“We are in contention, but any drop in standards, and if we don’t improve, then the season might take its toll on us.
“I don’t like to reflect on seasons and what the reasons were. As far as I’m concerned, if we work hard, considering we are in the running, then we’ve got a great chance.
“If I look at where we are, I go, well, you know, Stoke are behind us, Aston Villa are behind us, Nottingham Forest are behind us, teams that have invested or are fresh from the Premier League.”
Lampard brought in nine players. The most expensive was Martin Waghorn at £7.5m and the one yet to make an impact.
“I knew the issues I came into. We were the oldest squad in all the leagues. We had to sell the top goalscorer,” says Lampard. “We did some business around it and I am pleased we were able to get in some good quality loans, some new blood into the squad.
“But that was a big challenge on reflection.”