Frank Lampard faces up to tough make-or-break opportunity as Coventry manager
It should not take a great deal of imagination to dream up the reception in wait for Frank Lampard when he takes his new Coventry side to Millwall on Saturday.
As a Chelsea legend and former West Ham player, Lampard will be on enemy territory and the barracking he will cop from the locals promises to be relentless, unforgiving and deeply personal.
As Lampard prepares for his first game in sole charge of Coventry — he had just two days to prepare for last weekend’s 2-2 draw with Cardiff — it feels important to point out that the former England midfielder does not need to subject himself to an afternoon of abuse from Millwall fans.
Really, Lampard does not need to deal with any of it: the early starts, the long days at Coventry’s training ground, the travel, the compromises, the uncomfortable questions, the pressure from the club’s ambitious chairman, impatient supporters, moaning agents, unhappy players.
After two decades playing at the highest level of the game, Lampard has presumably not taken a job in England’s second tier for the money. If it is a payday he is seeking, he could have taken a route like his former international teammate Steven Gerrard and accepted a job in Saudi Arabia or similar.
Supposing he enjoys the spotlight, then he could easily join contemporaries Roy Keane and Gary Neville — both of whom quickly gave up on management — on the comfy Sky Sports sofas, still influential and breathing the rarefied air of the elite game, but untroubled by the pressures of management.
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