Frank Lampard has been appointed Everton manager, signing a two-and-a-half year contract taking him up to the summer of 2024.
The 43-year-old former Derby County and Chelsea boss was unveiled at the club’s Finch Farm training complex on Monday and will take charge of his first game on Saturday when Everton host fellow Premier League side Brentford in the fourth round of the FA Cup.
Here’s every word from Lampard's first interview as Everton manager put out by the club on YouTube.
Frank, first of all, your reaction to becoming the new manager of Everton Football Club?
“I’m very excited. It’s a huge honour for me to represent and manage a club with the tradition and size of Everton Football Club. I can’t wait to get started.
“I’ve always had a great feeling whenever I played against Everton as a player, playing at Goodison, I felt the atmosphere, I felt the passion of the fans and yeah, I’m very hungry to get started.”
So there’s so many different facets to the football club that reached out to you, that appealed to you?
“Yeah for sure. I think there are certain clubs in England as a young boy growing up, as a player and now as a manager that when you go into the stadium you can feel the passion that the fans have for their club.
“It’s very intense. At times I found it difficult when that passion was against you in a positive way obviously for Everton and I’m very much looking forward to representing that on their side and will 100% get the passion that they give when they watch their team and I’ll try and bring that as a manager.”
It was a meticulous recruitment process. What did you take from the conversations you had with the owner, the chairman and the board?
“It was very positive from my point of view to have such open conversations with the owner, with the board, to try and sell my vision for what I can bring to the club.
“I think you expect a meticulous process with a club the size of Everton Football Club and as I say I’m very pleased they’ve given me the role of managing the club, I’ll do it with all my heart, with all my passion and bring that.
“The process was as it should be and I’m very pleased to be here.”
Did their passion come through clearly as well?
“Yes, very much, passion and ambition. I could see that from the outside looking in but when you have those conversations close up it’s great to feel that.
“I hope they felt my ambition and how hard I want to work to bring it all together as much as I can so yes, really positive talks.”
Did the chairman and the owner give you an idea of their long-term vision for the football club?
“Yes they did. I think the most-important thing we all know we have to focus on is the short-term, to not get ahead of ourselves.
“But yes we know the new stadium is coming and we know where this club wants to be, where we want to get to, but we know first and foremost the challenges that are in front of us right now in terms of league position, we have an FA Cup game next week.
“So I want to get to work quickly on that, to deal with the short-term, and of course at the back of our mind there’s always the long-term vision of the club.”
It is a big challenge, it is a big job, you know that, but how important is the backing of the owner, the chairman and the board?
“Their backing and the open communication between the owner and board is, for me, a big deal.
“That helps me and I’m very open with the way I want to work and that’s how I want to be.
“I think that runs deeper and further than just the owner, board and myself, it runs through staff at the football club, it runs through the players and it runs through the fans, first and foremost because they are the football club.
“So from my point of view I’ll always try and be open, I’ll always try to communicate and I’ll hopefully always try to show the fans exactly how hard I will work and we will work to bring those long-term visions.”
Talking of the fans, you’ve played at Goodison Park, you’ve managed at Goodison Park, how important will the passion of the supporters on a matchday be moving forward?
“It will be hugely important. I always felt it as a player. I felt the passion and the support of the crowd, it could swing a game.
“As a team, the competitive level that the Premier League brings, the position we are in the table, we certainly need that.
“It’s a two-way thing. The players have to show that, they have to show it on the pitch.
“They have to show the same passion as every fan that turns up to watch that game and that will be my first job and my first message to the players that together we have to do it.
“These things can’t be done without the support both ways so we’ll try and do our job and I know that the fans will be there backing us.”
As you’ve eluded to, the Premier League table doesn’t make pleasant reading for Evertonians at the moment, what are the key steps and the first steps to turn that around?
“This is the position we’re in and I’ve watched closely from the outside and now I’m in.
“I think the first thing as a football club when you’re having tough times, and this happens, is that you regain the confidence and you get together.
“We keep talking here about players and fans, that’s a group thing.
“In terms of what we can control with the players, we have to work hard, we have to be focused but we have to have confidence.
“It’s a good squad, it’s a good bunch of players, it’s a good team and when things are hard and sometimes when things are tough, there’s a lot of criticism that can be thrown around.
“I’m here to change that and make it as positive message for the players to believe in themselves, to show that we have more than enough talent to move up the table, but it’s easy to speak like that, we have to do it obviously.”
Somebody once said that when you’re a manager you never stop learning, how have you evolved and changed as a manager since the day you first walked through the door at Derby County?
“I’ve evolved a lot and I think that’s important as a manager.
“It’s important that you have your idea of how you want to work, what you want your team to look like, but as you work with players and you go through experiences, it’s important that you continue to learn.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to work for Derby Football Club, I’ve worked at Chelsea where obviously I’d been a player, managing in the Champions League, managing big name players and trying to introduce youth into the team.
“So I’ve had a lot of experiences and you should always try and learn from them and I shall try and bring the things that I’ve learned to Everton Football Club.”
As a player, both at club and international level, you played for some of the biggest managers that ever managed, do you take a little bit from every manager that you’ve played for into your own coaching world?
“Yes I think you do. It’s a question I get asked a lot. I was fortunate enough to work under so many great managers.
“I think the important thing is you take the good things that you learn along the way.
“I’ve worked under some great managers but you also remain yourself. You try and build that.
“That’s what I’ve tried when I finished playing and I started to think about becoming a coach – what were the good things, what do you remember, what made you feel good as a player?
“A lot of management is not just the tactical side, it’s how you make the squad and how you make individuals feel.
“So I will try and be myself in that way. Be very personable, be very close to the players and set up a team to play good football and win games.”
Have you developed an idea of how you will get the best out of the squad?
“In terms of my idea on the squad, I have things I have seen from the outside that will be my priorities to try and improve, firstly to get results but also to try and improve confidence and improve the way we’re playing, to try and engage with the fans.
“I think it’s a unique club Everton in that you can really understand what the fans want to see and the first thing they want to see is fight and desire. That must always be our baseline.
“But yes I’ve seen things and I’ll work very quickly on the things I see as priorities.”
On an ideal Saturday afternoon, how would you like to see a Frank Lampard-managed Everton play?
“I keep saying the words passion and fight and I think it relates to Everton Football Club.
“It’s probably how I tried to build my career as a player. I knew I had to work overly hard to be the best that I could possibly be and I’m the same as a manager and I want to see that in my team.
“But beyond that you have to have the qualities to play good football.
“I want to see a team that are confident in the possession of the ball, that can control games with the possession but can also be very exciting to watch at the top end of the pitch.
“I think we need to be a team that’s very active, is crossing, getting shots and staying in the other half of the pitch. That’s what I always want.
“On the flip side of that, when you don’t have the ball, you want to be aggressive.
“That’s how my teams have always set up as I’ve been coaching and I’ll quickly work to make sure that’s how Everton is.”
Already as a manager you’ve developed a reputation for nurturing young players, developing young players, giving them the pathway that they need, is that an important part of the job for you?
“It’s an important part of the job for me yes because I was that young player, a long time ago, but I understand what it means to be a player that comes through at the club if you’re in the academy and can progress into the first team, what that means to the club and what that means to the fans.
“I think at Everton there is a history of bringing players through, there is a direct relation you see with the fans when they see a home-grown player come through.
“So my job as manager is not to get too nostalgic about that, players have to earn that right, train with the first team and show they’re worthy of doing it, and if I can integrate them and it does improve the team, if it improves the feel of the squad, brings great balance to it, I’ll certainly do that.
“That’s something you have to focus on. You have to have a strong link with the academy, make sure that the academy coaches and academy players know that if they perform they can move into the first team building and if you can, there will be a pathway into the first team.”
You can’t beat a bit of know-how though, out there on the pitch?
“No you can’t. That’s why it’s important to strike the right balance.
“We’ll rely on all the players. This is a fresh start with myself coming in, to see the players and we need experience.
“We’re in a position of course that we don’t want to be in as it stands now.
“It’s my job to find the right experience and work with those players, bring youth in at the right time because that’s what we want to do in the long-term at the club but of course we want to win football matches.”
It’s ironic that your first game in charge should be an FA Cup tie after you broke our hearts in the competition and your dad broke our hearts in the competition, so maybe Saturday is a time to give a little bit back?
“I’ve got a lot of making up to do on that front. I do apologise.
“I’ll have grown up on hearing stories of that because it’s about the only time my dad scored in his career and obviously broke Everton hearts at the time, a long time ago, and I scored one in the cup final.
“It’s one of those things, as a player I went up against Everton a lot, and I had some good days and some not-so-good days but I’m here to absolutely represent the club and as I say I’ll try to make up for a couple of those moments.”
