Everton: Lampard takes swipe at ‘intense’ Moshiri ‘strategy’; reveals why Chelsea return ‘wasn’t so bad’
Frank Lampard has explained why he thinks his spell as Everton manager was more “difficult” than his stint at Chelsea towards the end of last season.
Lampard has been out of work since leaving Chelsea at the end of last season. He returned to his former club as an interim manager in April after the Blues sacked Graham Potter.
The Chelsea legend only managed to win one of his 11 games in charge at the end of last season as the first full campaign with Todd Boehly as owner was miserable pretty much from start to finish.
After previously doing a decent job at Derby County and Chelsea during his first tenure, Lampard took over at Everton at the end of the 2022 January transfer window.
Lampard was praised for saving Everton from relegation at the end of that season but he was sacked at the start of 2023 with the club at risk of dropping into the Championship.
He has now explained why he “didn’t find Chelsea as difficult” as his “intense” period at Everton.
“At Everton, it was difficult at the end, it was probably searching for results – that’s always your job – but at Everton in the end, there were a lot of issues in and around it – we all know that there was an issue between the fans and the board at the time,” Lampard said via the Stick to Football podcast, brought to you by Sky Bet.
“I was on the phone a lot in the evenings, trying to connect with the owner, chairman, CEO, then go in and do the day job the next day. During this time, I found it an intense period.
“I didn’t find Chelsea as difficult, personally, because I knew it was finite, it was going to be six or seven weeks.
“I learnt very quickly in my head, what the issues were there, and they were not my issues to solve long term. I don’t want to sound like I palmed them off, it’s just that you want results, but at the same time if you go into a place where there are a lot of problems here, can I turn it around in nine games when motivation has just gone down?
“I came to peace with that a little bit – I wanted to win games because it was my reputation on the line, but at the same time I wasn’t so bad. Probably at the end of Everton would be the biggest spell where it’s been a challenge, but it makes you a better person.”
Everton owner Farhad Moshiri has deservedly been heavily criticised over his handling of the club and Lampard is “not exactly sure” what his “strategy” is.
“[What is Farhad Moshiri’s strategy at the club?] I’m not exactly sure, and I’m not saying that loosely because I came into the club four or five years after he’d been there,” Lampard added.
“You could see that there had been five managers – Marco Silva, Roberto Martinez, Carlo Ancelotti, Rafa Benitez, and Big Sam [Allardyce] – high-level managers.
“I came in and you could see with the squad that there wasn’t a strategy, and this happens at football clubs. New managers come in and want to go a different way, but you can have a strategy of what you want to be – I wasn’t sure what it was.”
