Sacking the club’s prodigal son did not seem like the best decision at Chelsea, which was then far from the Champions League positions in the Premier League.
It was not simply a change of rudder but of course. Frank Lampard seemed like a sensible bet. Legend and top scorer of the club (without having been a forward) who began his career as a coach.
The sanction of not signing due to irregularities in the hiring of minors was the perfect opportunity to place Lampard during that transition period that would also serve to blind the generation of Abraham, Mount, James, Hudson-Odoi, Tomori, Gilmour and company.
Do not forget that Chelsea had just won the Europa League with Maurizio Sarri at the helm in the farewell of Eden Hazard, his banner in the last period of splendor.
Lampard’s first year brought the Champions League qualification with him after finishing fourth in the Premier League and was on the verge of claiming a title, but fell in the FA Cup final against Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal.
When the sanction was fulfilled and he was free to sign, there was a lot of money in the box that had been accumulated without forgetting the resources of its millionaire owner Roman Abramovich. In the midst of the economic crisis due to Covid-19, nobody spent on the market like the Blues who took two coveted pearls from the Bundesliga such as Timo Werner and Kai Havertz.
In the end they remembered that they had to renew themselves from back to front and went for goalkeeper Edouard Mendy and veteran Thiago Silva to strengthen the defense in the short term.
Lampard’s progress was compromised because the figures appeared again, which implied pressure from the management for the investment made. Contrary to the first season in which the sanction shielded the young coach to work without the demand for results, aware that the process was aimed at the development of the youth players.
This season there would not be the same patience with tremendous expense and if Roberto Di Matteo was fired months after giving the club his only Orejona, the risk of dismissing Lampard in the first crisis was latent.
This is how they bet on Thomas Tuchel, dismissed by PSG despite the fact that the German was one triumph away from winning the Champions League, the obsession of the Qatari owners.
At the time, the RAI reported that the objective of the Russian Marina Granovskaya, Abramovich’s executing arm in sports, was to bring Sarri back, but the owner rejected the idea and demanded the arrival of a German coach.
It took Tuchel less than three months in office to agree with Abramovich. Since making his debut against Wolverhampton in late January, he has only suffered one loss in seventeen coached games. Finally they are solvent in the rear and in thirteen of those parties their bow was intact.
In the Premier they dispute with Leicester, West Ham and Liverpool two places to the next Champions League, in whose current edition they are still alive and will face Manchester City for a place in the FA Cup final.
The trial will come at the end of the season, but for now in the decision to bring in Tuchel, to replace Lampard, the Russian patron was right.
Until next week, take good care of yourselves, please.
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