Former Chelsea player is finally confirmed new boss

Frank Lampard has been appointed the new Chelsea manager, completing an emotional return to Stamford Bridge.

The Blues legend has now put pen to paper on a three-year deal to become Maurizio Sarri’s successor at the west London club to end the wait for one of the worst kept secrets in English football to be confirmed.

“I am immensely proud to be returning to Chelsea as head coach,” Lampard said after the news was confirmed yesterday morning. 

“Everyone knows my love for this club and the history we have shared, however, my sole focus is on the job in hand and preparing for the season ahead. I am here to work hard, bring further success to the club and I cannot wait to get started.”

“Frank possesses fantastic knowledge and understanding of the club and last season, he demonstrated he is one of the most talented young coaches in the game,” Chelsea chief Marina Granovskaia added.

“After 13 years with us as a player, where he became a club legend and our record goalscorer, we believe this is the perfect time for him to return and are delighted he has done so. We will do everything we can to ensure he has all the support required to be a huge success.”

Surely after putting pen to paper on the three-year contract, Chelsea posted a video on Twitter showing Lampard walking around the Stamford Bridge pitch.

“I’m delighted to be back,” he told the camera. “I have so many great memories at this place. The new role starts here, I cannot wait to get started. See you soon.”

The 41-year-old will hold his first press conference as Chelsea boss at 2 pm on Thursday, where he will be formally unveiled to the awaiting media. 

Chelsea affirmed their intention to discuss their vacant manager’s job with Lampard after making an official approach to Derby last Tuesday, while on Monday the Championship club excused their manager from the first two days of pre-season training in order for their manager to conclude his move to London.

And those formal discussions have been brought to a successful conclusion with all the finer details of Lampard’s return now finalised.

Chelsea have paid an initial compensation package worth in the region of £4million to secure Lampard’s return. The former Blues midfielder was happy at Derby - and he was prepared to take training on Monday and Tuesday before the club excused him from duty.

But the emotional pull of returning to Stamford Bridge, where he enjoyed huge success was simply too big to resist.

Lampard lifted the Champions League with the Blues against Bayern Munich back in 2012— now he will work alongside Petr Cech again after his old team-mate returned as an ‘advisor’

Chelsea’s greatest?

Frank Lampard certainly ranks among Chelsea’s top players of all-time - but his status as their greatest-ever was effectively confirmed by former team-mate and captain John Terry.

In 2017, following Lampard’s retirement as a player, Terry wrote: ‘The GREATEST player in the history of our great football club.

“All the great memories together winning the trophy after trophy year after year I will never forget. You have won everything and should be extremely proud.

“It’s been my pleasure and honour to play and experience all those great moments with you.”

Lampard is expected to bring coaches Jody Morris, who played and coached for Chelsea, and Chris Jones, another former Blues coach with him back to Stamford Bridge.

Following top-level talks, led by director Marina Granovskaia, the west London club decided Lampard would be their first choice target to replace Sarri, who left after one season in charge to become Juventus manager. There were some doubts over Lampard’s suitability for the position given his relative inexperience.

The 41-year-old has just one season’s worth of managerial experience, leading Derby to the Championship play off final last season - where the Rams eventually lost to Aston Villa. But Lampard will certainly galvanise a fan base that was divided at times last season given his hero’s status at the club.

He will be expected to blood a number of the club’s most talented youngsters due to Chelsea’s two window transfer ban.                                     

Morris’ experience of working with the club’s academy players is likely to prove crucial during the forthcoming season.

Of course, we didn’t. We lost 2-1. And we had a goal ruled offside. And we missed a penalty kick. And we had a player given a red card and sent off.

So it was a disastrous night for a nation that invented the bloody game in the first place, and ironically, the USA made England and me choke on it.

What particularly upset me was that we’d lost to a bunch of truly arrogant, strutting, preening show ponies whose absurdly over-the-top goal celebrations against far lesser teams like Thailand had already caused outrage during this tournament.

It's activist’ captain Megan Rapinoe, who must surely be a candidate for most annoying woman in world sport, dictates the tone for this USA team.

When she’s not standing there on the pitch with her arms outstretched inhaling presumed adulation like she’s Lady Gaga at the Oscars, she’s ranting away about how much she hates President Trump or taking the knee during the national anthem in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick.

So the sight of her and tea-sipping Morgan dancing jubilantly on England’s soccer grave last night at the end of the game was enough to make me vomit.

But when I woke up this morning, I felt rather differently about them and their team. Once the pain of losing to them had dissipated, I was able to see them for what they are—and that’s not just the best female soccer team in the world, but the best female soccer team in history.

They’re a ruthless and relentless winning machine; fast, powerful and highly skilled, and mentally so strong, resilient and determined. No wonder they’ve won so many World Cups and Olympic Golds - they’re absolute killers.

And in sport, as in life, if you can deliver on all your self-hype then people will not just grudgingly respect you, many will love you for it. As Donald Trump once told me with such prescience: “If you talk the talk, you gotta walk the walk, or the act doesn’t play.”

Now that I’ve calmed down and had time to reflect, I can see that the cold hard reality of last night is the USA gave England a lesson in how to play our own game.

Ironically, they did so because the women’s game is so much more advanced and better funded in the States than it is in England, to our shame.

But regardless of how large your resources, you still have to win. And the USA team that knocked England out of the World Cup is rightfully feared and revered around the world because the USA players are better at women’s soccer than anyone else. It’s simple as that.

I’ve even found the inner strength to have a wry chuckle at Alex Morgan’s tea-drinking taunt because when you win so emphatically and with such style, you also win the right to have a bit of fun at the loser’s expense.

The uncomfortable truth for everyone back in England today is that Morgan and her teammates were just too good for us.

So, admittedly with great reluctance, I must dig deep into my rarely tapped reservoir of good grace, and acknowledge this unpalatable fact.

I will also raise my own little pinky finger to toast America’s victory and wish them good luck for the final on Sunday, which I confidently predict they will win.

And when they do, I’ll have a nice cup of tea to help me get over it.