Frank Lampard has returned to Chelsea as interim head coach until the end of the season.
The club announced the temporary appointment this morning, in time for the legendary former Blues midfielder to lead an evening training session ahead of the trip to Wolves on Saturday.
The 44-year-old is privately being described as a "stabiliser" in west London, after Graham Potter was sacked following the defeat to Aston Villa last weekend.
A joint statement co-controlling owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali said explained the logic: “We are delighted to welcome Frank back to Stamford Bridge. Frank is a Premier League Hall of Famer and a legend at this club.
“As we continue our thorough and exhaustive process for a permanent head coach, we want to provide the club and our fans with a clear and stable plan for the remainder of the season. We want to give ourselves every chance of success and Frank has all of the characteristics and qualities we need to drive us to the finish line.
“We have an important game against Wolves on Saturday and then we will turn our attention to our Champions League quarter-final in Madrid next week. We are all going to give Frank our full backing as we aim to get the best possible outcome from all our remaining games.”
His appointment is a final roll of the dice in an attempt to save Chelsea's season, with the club languishing in 11th place in the Premier League table, but having a tantalising double-header against Real Madrid coming up in the Champions League quarter-finals.
With a 14-point gap to fourth-placed Manchester United in the League, arguably the only way to qualify for next year's Champions League is to win it.
Lampard has brought in Ashley Cole, his former team-mate for club and country, as one of his assistants to help try to secure the lucrative £100million windfall from qualifying for the Champions League.
They are joined by Paul Clement, Chris Jones and Joe Edwards, who all coached at Chelsea in the past, into their backroom staff.
Lampard watched Bruno Saltor, Potter's assistant coach, lead the team on Tuesday at Stamford Bridge in the goalless draw with Liverpool. He was sat in the directors' box alongside co-owner Behdad Eghbali and sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley after beginning talks for his re-appointment that evening. Bruno now steps aside, clearing out Potter's staff.
For Lampard, this role may help him rebuild his career, having been sacked by Everton in January and last managing Chelsea in January 2021, when he was sacked by former owner Roman Abramovich. He remains only a temporary option, with a wider search ongoing for a new boss to begin in the summer.
Chelsea insist they will take time over the next appointment after seeing Potter fail after his rapid appointment following the sacking of Thomas Tuchel in September. The Blues still want a coach capable of having sustainable success with a young squad and their significant financial backing, and will interview at least five candidates.
Having already been contacted, Julian Nagelsmann and Luis Enrique are considered frontrunners. Both are unattached, with Nagelsmann having been sacked by Bayern Munich two weeks ago and Luis Enrique losing his job with Spain after the World Cup.
Nagelsmann, 35, has experience working in a multi-club model, which Chelsea hope to emulate, alongside one of the Blues' new sporting directors, Christopher Vivell. Luis Enrique is known to be very interested in the role and has already flown into London for talks.
Mauricio Pochettino is expected to come back into the discussion, but is a strong candidate to succeed Carlo Ancelotti at Real Madrid. Sporting Lisbon's Ruben Amorim and Eintracht Frankfurt's Europa League-winning coach Oliver Glasner are among the alternative options.
