Gab Sutton weekly: Will Frank Lampard be a success at Coventry?

Just as Coventry City’s process for coming to the decision to sack legendary manager Mark Robins must be questioned, so must the process for choosing to replace him with Frank Lampard.

While the Chelsea icon has scaled greater heights in his managerial career, his level of performance has never exceeded decent.

Of course, Lampard did a reasonable job at Derby, leading them to a Championship Play-Off Final in 2018-19, then guided Chelsea to a top four Premier League finish the following season following a transfer ban.

He also kept Everton up at a time of strife for the Toffees, striking a largely good rapport with fans in the process.

So, our doubts are not that his record is horrendous (although he also had tough second seasons at Chelsea and Everton, as well as a poor second stint with the former). More so that he’s never achieved against the odds — it’s only ever been a case of meeting expectation at best.

On the contrary, Robins took over Coventry at their lowest ebb, inspired them to win the EFL Trophy in 2016-17, then promotion from League Two at the first attempt the following season, then the League One title two years later.

After initial stabilisation in the Championship, Robins evolved the squad and turned them into consistent Play-Off contenders at the level.

They reached the final in 2022-23 and, yes, he developed stars like Gus Hamer and Viktor Gyokeres, but much of that squad were players like Kyle McFadzean and Jamie Allen who were performing well, well above what might have been perceived as their natural level.

So, being able to nurture top individual players, overseeing excellent recruitment whilst also building a team ethos that allows it to perform above the net sum of it’s parts is an extraordinary array of qualities that Robins has shown, and are ones that Lampard hasn’t — yet.

The solution to Coventry’s tough first three months of the season should have been to give Robins the help he may have needed in the coaching department after right-hand man Adi Viveash left in the summer, and back him to add experience and knowhow in January.

Instead, the call to replace him with Lampard has the whiff of an owner in Doug King who is charmed by celebrity.

Whispers that King didn’t consult senior figures at the CBS Arena while negotiations with Lampard were ongoing, nor keep them abreast of details — accurate or otherwise — don’t exactly dispel the image of somebody who has bulldozed his way through the whole process.

Nor, for that matter, do King’s irritable responses to questions in the media and fans forums, at a time when he had already made himself extremely unpopular.

Meanwhile, the fact that Coventry weren’t able to identify high-pedigree coaches to support Mark Robins after Adi Viveash left, but have been able to bring in Joe Edwards and Chris Jones as soon as Lampard walks through the door, feels suspicious.

It may genuinely be that Robins fell out with Viveash, which is King’s side of the story: though the most important two perspectives haven’t been revealed.

Furthermore, it may genuinely be that Coventry couldn’t conclude a deal for external replacements for Viveash, and they had made honest attempts to do so, which is why the likes of Rhys Carr and John Dempster were promoted from the academy.

And yet, applying a cynical lens to the situation, which may prove unfair, but is difficult to avoid given the way Robins was treated — could this have been the plan all along?

Did King go into the season with a plan to dismiss Robins for a bigger name? Is that why he didn’t back him to bring in his own coaches? Because if he did that, it would be more expensive for somebody else to bring in their own team?

Whether or not our minor conspiracy theory is accurate, Robins was treated poorly — and to what end?

Because there may be a glamour to having Lampard as manager, and the extra publicity that comes with it, but that’s not the same as him being good.

It’s a decision reflective of an owner who, King himself freely admits, has only taken an interest in football relatively recently yet, by the same token, wants operational input.

And, in an era of football in which the technical details are being drilled down to the nth degree elsewhere, it begs an important question: how can Coventry succeed with a less than knowledgeable owner who wants to involve themselves in footballing decisions?

For all SISU’s flaws — and there were a lot of them — Joy Seppala did give Mark Robins the space and freedom to manage the club the way he wanted, alongside a dependable former Chief Executive in Dave Boddy, which contributed to five years of excellent recruitment.

So, if Coventry were to divert from the model of giving the manager the autonomy, it makes little sense to give more of that autonomy to somebody who has possibly the least footballing understanding at the club.

And, there’s also the question of Lampard himself. It’s a much-exhausted topic, to question whether a famous ex-player deserves the high-end management job, but it hasn’t become less valid through the passing of time.

To become a footballer, you have to beat off competition at schoolboy level, then at academy level before earning so much as one professional contract, let alone get to the very top.

And yet, to become a coach, it’s completely different: a glittering playing reputation can accelerate people through the learning phase, right into the big gigs.

The point is not to blame Lampard for having that reputation, nor taking the advantages that have come his way, but naturally there has to be less respect for him as a coach as a result, as opposed to other Championship managers like Daniel Farke, Carlos Corberan and Danny Rohl.

For coaches who have worked their way up the hard way, the skills they have had to demonstrate to earn their jobs are more reflective of the skills they will need in them.

Of course, it’s up to Lampard to change the narrative. To prove that he is the real deal. That he has been unfairly written off. That his reasonable record in management so far should count for something.

And, he would argue that, not only has he learnt from some of the best managers in the world, like Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti, he’s surrounded himself with coaches who have done the hard yards in coaching, and who do have legitimate qualifications in the industry.

Joe Edwards didn’t have a senior playing career, so the 38-year-old has worked his way up from the age of 17 entirely on merit, working with some of the top young talent in the world with Chelsea and England, and should be a fantastic addition to the staff along with Chris Jones, who has a similar story.

So, with Edwards and Jones bringing their elite coaching minds to the table, and with Lampard becoming the face of the operation, bringing what should be excellent man management qualities, and commanding surely the respect of the dressing room, it might just work.

In fairness to Coventry fans, they have shown a willingness to embrace Lampard, against the majority outside view, using it to create a siege mentality.

While Lampard’s prospects at the CBS Arena shouldn’t be written off, however, the question marks over the circumstances of the appointment mean it’s likelier to go wrong than go right.

It took Coventry City eight years to rebuild themselves as a club, but it would take far less than that to undo much of Robins’ good work. 

Check out the latest edition of the EFL Betting show with Gab and Matt Hill below