Frank Lampard spotted major Chelsea issue after just seven weeks – ‘That’s the truth’
Frank Lampard admits it took just a matter of weeks during his second Chelsea spell to realise that things as the club “cannot be right”.
The Blues icon was called upon back in 2023 to manage the team for a short period following the sacking of Graham Potter. The west Londoners were in the midst of their worst season in more than 20 years and Lampard came into a sinking ship for a matter of weeks until the campaign ended. He’d previously led the team to the top four in his first stint but returned once Todd Boehly had assumed the club from Roman Abramovich.
Lampard played in a Chelsea team that were among England’s dominant forces, claiming Premier Leagues and the Champions League whilst playing under some stellar managers and quickly clocked that all was not well when he came in for a second time as manager.
The Coventry boss, who has led a renaissance with the Sky Blues, concedes it was a difficult spell of his managerial career with the timeframe meaning he was unable to have the impact he’d like but did observe how not everyone was pulling in the same direction.
He told Sky Sports : “I saw things that I know cannot be right at elite football and that’s the truth. I didn’t love working in that short period because it’s hard to lay down an idea when you’re going to be leaving but Chelsea will always be a massive club in my life.
“But when I understand the standards of Chelsea – in that period of time a lot of players were in transition of maybe leaving and some problems and motivation were a problem – in an interim period you can’t really affect that.
“When you see the results of it, I’m experienced enough to know what’s right and what’s wrong and basic things in a training ground on a pitch. I didn’t learn anything tactical but it did reinforce my beliefs of all my experiences of when you know what a group is really fighting in the same direction – how strong that can be and when it’s not, it can be really challenging.”
Chelsea are onto their second manager since Lampard with Enzo Maresca replacing Mauricio Pochettino in the summer. The ex-Leicester boss started impressively but the Blues have struggled in 2025 and face the prospect of missing out on the Champions League having sat second in December.
Lampard meanwhile is hoping to join them in the top flight having taken Coventry from 17th to fifth with a play-off campaign now in their sights. The 46-year-old said: “We were conceding too many goals and we felt different elements of our game could be improved which were backed up by what we’d seen and the numbers so we got to work quickly on it. The players have been a pleasure in terms of their engagement and application.”
Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
Sky has slashed the price of its Essential TV and Sky Sports bundle in an unbeatable new deal that saves £192 and includes 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more.
At Reach and across our entities we and our partners use information collected through cookies and other identifiers from your device to improve experience on our site, analyse how it is used and to show personalised advertising. You can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data, at any time clicking the “Do Not Sell or Share my Data” button at the bottom of the webpage. Please note that your preferences are browser specific. Use of our website and any of our services represents your acceptance of the use of cookies and consent to the practices described in our Privacy Notice and Cookie Notice.