Coventry City chairman Doug King has urged supporters not to worry about speculation linking head coach Frank Lampard with a return to Chelsea.
NOP NIGERIA reports that Lampard led the Sky Blues back to the Premier League for the first time in more than 25 years after sealing the Championship title with a 5-1 win over Portsmouth on Tuesday. The success has seen his name mentioned following the dismissal of coach Liam Rosenior.
Speaking to BBC CWR, King praised Lampard’s impact and said the club are not focusing on rumours.
The chairman said, “He’s done a fantastic job, it’s been an incredible 18 months for him and for us. I am sure he’s in reflective mode. I said to him ‘Do not underestimate how difficult what you’ve just achieved is to do’.
“He’s done huge things in his playing career but to get out of this league as champions without a parachute payment, from where we’ve come from, is a huge achievement nobody can take away from him.
“Everybody is going to get linked with everything, it’s a merry-go-round. It’s a bit disappointing that clubs are appointing three or four managers a season.
“We don’t want to be in those positions, that means something has gone a little bit astray.”
King said Lampard appears settled at the club and stressed he cannot control outside interest.
“You can see how emotionally connected [Lampard] is with the city, you can see what it meant to him to get promotion and then the title and I think he’s found a happy place at the moment,” he said.
“It doesn’t mean there’s not going to be some staggering bid for him in the summer and he’ll have to make his choices, because he’s shown his credentials as a high-quality head coach, but I’m not going to comment on that, I can’t control it.
“I just think he’s happy, I’m happy, everybody’s happy, we’ve just got smiles on our faces and we don’t worry about what may or may not happen for the head coach.”
Note that Frank Lampard who played for Chelsea from 2001 to 2014, has had two different coaching spells with the club, first as a permanent coach (2019 to 2021) and then as an interim manager (2023).
