Last year, on January 2022 to be exact, we wrote an article entitled “Unemployed Frank Lampard”. The contents of the article are about Lampard, who has yet to get a new club since being sacked by Chelsea on January 25 2021. Then, on 31 January 2022, four days after we wrote that article, Lampard was appointed manager of Everton, replacing Rafael Benitez.
So, the Chelsea legend is no longer idle. Lampard managed to keep Everton in the Premier League, free from the relegation zone. However, less than a year, January 23, 2023 to be precise, Lampard was sacked. Again. Everton have to let him go, because The Goodison Boys are now in the relegation zone, in 19th place in the Premier League standings to be precise. Have the same points as Southampton who are in 20th place, which is 15 points, only superior on goal difference.
Lampard’s assistants, namely Joe Edwards, Paul Clement, Ashley Cole and Chris Jones, also left Everton. Only Alan Kelly, goalkeeping coach, stayed. I don’t know what’s wrong with Frank Lampard. Every new year he is always in trouble with a club. Fired in January, got another January job, then back unemployed again in January.
Lampard’s record at Everton this season has also convinced the club’s leaders to let him go. Of the 20 matches that have been played, Everton have only won three times, the rest are six draws and 11 defeats. Many supporters actually support Lampard, they actually attack the board of directors, including the owner Farhad Moshiri.
Moshiri was present when Everton lost 0-2 at home to West Ham, the first match he attended after 14 months of not watching at the stadium. Criticized Everton chairman Bill Kenwright was also present at the London Stadium. Ridiculously, when Everton lost 1-2 to Southampton, at home, Goodison Park, on January 14, none of the Everton officials were present. According to the BBC, they said “there is a real threat to their safety”.
Merseyside Police said there were no reports of threats or incidents prior to the match, before Everton announced there were “tightened security procedures” for the game. Back to Lampard. Moshiri told Sky Sports that the decision to fire Lampard was not in his hands, but the decision of the board of directors. Whoever decides, Lampard is gone.
Lampard was not supported by the Everton management by presenting qualified players in his squad. As of the end of this writing, Everton has yet to buy or borrow players in the winter transfer window. They spent 80 million pounds in the summer of 2022, including buying Amadou Onana for 33 million pounds from Lille and Dwight McNeil from Burnley for 20 million pounds.
That was after Everton sold Brazilian striker Richarlison for 60 million pounds to Tottenham Hotspur. Now, Everton must find a new manager with 18 matches remaining in the Premier League. Marcelo Bielsa, former Leeds United manager, is one of the fillers on the target list.
Moshiri greatly admires the 67-year-old Argentine manager. Bielsa has yet to find a job, having been sacked by Leeds in February 2022. If Bielsa doesn’t want to take the job in the middle of the season, then Everton already have a backup. Sean Dyche, former Burnley manager, was also considered.
Then, there was Ralph Hasenhuettl, the former Southampton manager, who had actually been targeted by Everton before finally appointing Lampard in January last year. Now, the German manager is also yet to coach a new club, having left Southampton in November last year. Another candidate is Carlos Corberan, who is currently the manager of West Bromwich Albion, who competes in the Championship Division.
Corberan has been in charge of West Brom since October 25 last year, when the club were bottom of the table. Corberan resurrected The Hawthorns, who are currently in 10th place in the Championship standings. Bielsa knows Corberan well, the 39-year-old coach from Spain. Because Corberan had been Bielsa’s staff while at Leeds United.
While a new manager has yet to be appointed, Everton will be handled on an interim basis by Paul Tait and Leighton Baines, both of whom are coaches at Everton. Tait has been a coach at Evetton since 2008, while Baines, a former Everton defender, is the coach of Everton’s Under-18s.
And, of course Lampard will receive severance pay. There are still 18 months left on Lampard’s contract at Everton. When dealing with Chelsea, Lampard received 75,000 pounds per week.
According to the Liverpool Echo, the assumption is that Lampard earns £65,000 per week at Everton. So, the severance pay that the 44-year-old manager will receive is around 4.7 million pounds. It could be, Lampard will accept less than that. Maybe Lampard has finally realized that a good footballer doesn’t necessarily make a good coach either. A lot of flying hours must be collected to be able to bring a Premier League club to shine.
But, that doesn’t mean that Lampard has to wait until January 2024 to get a new job in the technical area, right? Maybe he has to go down a level, for example to the Championship division, like when Lampard handled Derby County from 2018 to 2019.
ASL
