Frank Lampard angry with ‘lazy’ statement aimed at him as he makes Pep Guardiola claim

Former Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard is currently in charge of Championship side Coventry City and has responded to the idea that world-class players struggle as managers

Frank Lampard has slammed the notion that elite players never cut it as top managers, branding it a “lazy” stereotype.

The 46-year-old, celebrated as one of the finest midfielders of his era, hasn’t yet seen his coaching career match up to his playing success. Still, the Coventry City manager rejects the idea that he can’t replicate his on-field triumphs in the dugout.

The theory has regularly been discussed about Lampard’s former England team-mates. Steven Gerrard spent 18 months with Saudi Pro League side Al-Ettifaq after being sacked by Aston Villa. At the same time, Plymouth Argyle recently dismissed Wayne Rooney after he also struggled while in charge of Birmingham City.

Chelsea legend Lampard, whose coaching journey kicked off at Derby County in 2018, has twice been in charge of his old club and managed Everton in the top flight. Since taking the reins at Coventry, he’s steered the Sky Blues to fifth in the Championship, climbing 12 places since his appointment in November. However, the ex-midfielder believes there is an unfair assumption that gifted players always struggle as managers.

In an interview with The Athletic, Lampard confronted the cliche head-on. “It’s a really lazy thing to say great players don’t make great managers,” the Coventry boss said.

“You start listing some of them: [Zinedine] Zidane, [Carlo] Ancelotti, [Johan] Cruyff, [Pep] Guardiola… It’s just a fallacy. It’s just picking an argument with confirmation bias. There’s such a highlight on it, I think some of it’s lazy and broad, just to view ‘the golden generation’, as it’s put, without digging a bit deeper into the job in hand for those managers and the challenges in question.”

Lampard argued that former players who’ve had illustrious careers and choose to transition into management deserve recognition instead of judgment due to the increased scrutiny they face. “I always feel that anyone who goes into this job as an ex-player who’s had a highly regarded career, that in itself should get a lot of credit because you understand then that there’s a bigger fall for you,” he continued.

“There’s a bigger level of interest in you: ‘Maybe he’ll succeed, but what if he fails?’ That’s a bit of a cultural thing. I think we can be guilty of that in this country.”

At only 46 and with merely seven years of managerial experience, Lampard is conscious he has plenty more knowledge to gain as a coach. “But it’s one of those where the longer you do it, the more you learn,” he said. “You work and you use some of the skills you learn as a player, but more importantly you use the skills that you learn from the first day you walk into management, which I did at Derby. You learn every day from then on.”

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