Frank Lampard arrived at Everton late in a January transfer window with the club in disarray. He leaves, 12 months later, in similar circumstances.
Along with a fanbase rejuvenated by the unexpectedly precious bond he formed with them, Lampard steered Everton away from relegation last season, ending in those remarkable scenes at Goodison Park as supporters streamed onto the pitch to celebrate a survival that had seemed unlikely weeks earlier.
But he did not have enough miracles to save a broken club and the problems he inherited were simply too severe for him to overcome with the limited resources at his disposal. One win and 11 defeats across the last 14 matches tells the story of a manager who could not survive. He must take responsibility for his role as Everton now languish in the bottom three. But he is only partly to blame for his downfall.
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Twelve months ago Lampard joined a club in crisis. Shackled by years of excess spending, burdened by the handsome contracts that were a consequence of such misadventure and tasked with turning a Frankenstein squad into something approaching a cohesive unit, he arrived at a club in a relegation death spiral. He had one thing going for him - that he was not his predecessor, whose controversial appointment remains an open wound and served only to turn a desperate situation into a toxic one. Against that backdrop he performed a minor miracle. It was tumultuous and there were times, such as the humiliation at Tottenham Hotspur and the relegation dogfight defeat at Burnley, when all hope appeared lost. Yet with a fanbase he showed respect and care towards he formed a partnership that ultimately carried an injury-blighted side to safety on the penultimate game of last season.
The experience of Finch Farm and the Goodison Park stands uniting to create such a powerful force offered genuine hope of progress. And Lampard desperately wanted to succeed at Everton. This was clearest away from the frontline, in what he did - and said - behind the scenes. He knew it was a privilege to work at the club and he bought into the idea of a legacy project, the idea of restoring pride in a great, historic sporting institution, of potentially leading it from the famous stands of Goodison Park to a new landmark waterfront stadium that would host football fitting of the imperious venue.
Frank Lampard was proud to lead Everton and desperate to make his vision work
His vision went beyond Goodison Park and Finch Farm and to the fans, with whom the unlikely relationship he shared helped to provide the points that kept Everton in the top flight last season. Moving to the front seat of the coach as it left Halewood for Leicester so that he could fist bump the supporters outside, meeting fan groups after hours to surprise them and thank them personally for their effort, or even agreeing to give up his private time to chat about key issues at the club while on tours overseas - Lampard knew the importance of being engaged with the club's biggest asset. And Everton, and the city of Liverpool, had an impact on him. When the ECHO approached Lampard as part of a city-wide appeal for information after the tragic shooting of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel, he had no hesitation about backing it.
Lampard would obsess over how to take Everton forward, working after hours at the Cheshire base he used to concentrate on football, constantly checking in with director of football Kevin Thelwell during transfer windows and sharing messages of support from afar with those of his players who made it to the World Cup in Qatar. He demanded hard work, something which came through in his comments time and time again. One of the Premier League's greatest goalscorers and a serial winner on the pitch, he would often put his success down to his work ethic rather than natural ability and implored his players to follow that example. But he was protective of them as well, particularly of Anthony Gordon - who teammates would joke was Lampard's 'son' such was their bond.
Frank Lampard the latest manager to have his dreams undermined by the legacy of mismanagement he inherited
Yet for all Lampard's desire to create a legacy on Merseyside, he was hamstrung by the one he inherited. Under majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri, more than half a billion pounds has been spent on taking Everton backwards. Lampard was his sixth managerial appointment in six years, operating under what became Moshiri's third director of football. The consequences of that instability formed the backdrop to Lampard's reign. He picked up a confused squad pieced together as the club lurched between managers and directors of football. The money spent building that Finch Farm cocktail meant Lampard and Thelwell were constrained by financial limits the club was flirting with because of the spending that came before them. Somehow, he got that team over the line on the penultimate game of last season, giving fans one of their most memorable occasions with the win over Crystal Palace. But as the dust settled the reality sunk in. Yes, he was able to bring players in over the summer - and he must take some responsibility for their roles in his own downfall - but the biggest deal was the sale of Richarlison, his talisman during the relegation fight.
The Brazil striker's departure was predictable but no less painful, effectively enforced by the club's financial position. Six months on, heading into January and with the squad in need of additions once again, Everton no longer feel the need to run transfer plans by the footballing authorities. Yet Lampard was once again bereft of substantial support, his opening gambit being to bring back an academy player from their loan spell while watching as Wolverhampton Wanderers committed to splashing, albeit questionably, £45m on a forward they outmuscled Everton on as part of their efforts to survive at the Blues' expense. He was sacked three weeks into arguably the most important transfer window of the club’s modern history. As he watched his side fall to defeat at West Ham, his final game, he still had no new signing to turn to, instead having to watch as his opposite number David Moyes introduced Danny Ings, the proven goalscorer he had craved and targeted, make his debut for a team that shared the relegation zone with Everton.
Things were supposed to be different at Everton this time
Lampard's appointment was said to have been inspired by the strategic review launched after the exit of sporting director Marcel Brands in late 2021 and led by chairman Bill Kenwright and chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale. It was an exploration solely of the footballing side of the club and preached patience, unity and youth as pillars upon which to build sustainable progress - the type of long-term project designed to lift Everton away from relegation battles in the future. While such ambitions may be admirable and much of the change that has followed at Finch Farm makes sense, the initiative only works if those on the frontline at Everton have the resources to keep the club in the Premier League in the first place. Whether Lampard did is, at best, open to debate. What is not is that his hands were tied by the bad decisions made before him - the same decisions that led to the need for a strategic review in the first place and which do not deserve to avoid scrutiny.
The clearest result of the circumstances Lampard entered into is that of the summer transfer window. He built from the back but could not cover all bases. Much has been made of the decision not to bring more attacking players in following the departure of Richarlison and with Dominic Calvert-Lewin having been blighted with injury last season. There is no doubt Everton were left short but the decision was a calculated gamble - one that failed but was enforced. Calvert-Lewin had looked in great shape in pre-season, impressing coaches with the condition he returned in after the summer break. And Lampard had defensive fitness concerns too. When Calvert-Lewin broke down on the eve of the campaign Everton were left without a striker he felt he could place his faith in. But after 70 minutes of that first game two of his three starting centre backs had also succumbed to injuries that effectively led to their absence until after the World Cup. The early move to sign James Tarkowski and the deal to bring in Conor Coady, already in discussion when Chelsea visited Goodison, prevented a defensive crisis. With holes to plug elsewhere there is some credence to the argument that he could plan for losing key players at one, but not both, ends of the pitch.
Was Lampard a good manager? He was certainly an unlucky one
Those injuries point to another theme of Lampard's tenure. Whether he was a 'good' manager at Everton will be argued long after his exit. But he was certainly an unlucky one. Injuries to the likes of Calvert-Lewin, Yerry Mina, Ben Godfrey, Fabian Delph and Andros Townsend severely undermined his first six months in charge. During his second, issues suffered by Calvert-Lewin, Mina, Godfrey, Nathan Patterson, James Garner and, at one point, the ever-reliable Jordan Pickford, hampered his plans. And then there were the decisions. The Rodri handball that inexplicably did not lead to a penalty against Manchester City, the Allan sending off against Newcastle United, the flashpoints against Brentford that saw Jarrad Branthwaite sent off and Mads Bech Sorensen stay on. Even on that dramatic night against Palace it remains a source of confusion how Jordan Ayew was allowed to remain on the pitch to put his side 2-0 up after a horrible lunge on Gordon. Just think of how different the Premier League table might look now had Virgil van Dijk been sent off for his lunge on Amadou Onana in the Merseyside derby, Aleksander Mitrovic for his late tackle on Idrissa Gueye in the early exchanges at Fulham or Erling Haaland for his nasty tackle from behind on Vitalii Mykolenko at City - or his elbow on Tarkowski later in the game.
While bad luck and the chastening legacy of mismanagement hurt Lampard, he is not immune from blame for the position Everton find themselves in. They are second from bottom for a reason and damaging defeats either side of the World Cup break made his position untenable. It may be true that Everton entered the home game with Leicester City with the top half of the table within reach but that match sparked a disastrous drop off in form through a dismal display in front of the home crowd. It took a Youri Tielemans wondergoal to separate the sides before a late second was added as Everton chased the game. Yet the hosts were a distant second best. The ease with which Leicester cut through Everton was a concern throughout and the decision to push Onana forward felt misguided as they beat the press with ease - particularly after he had been so effective in a deeper role in the previous home game, the emphatic win over Palace that felt like the high expression of what Lampard was working towards. That Lampard persisted with Onana in that role felt all the more peculiar one week later as Everton were thrashed by Bournemouth. It was that week that signalled the beginning of the end, though it was nine weeks until the West Ham game that was his last. After Leicester toyed with Everton, two trips to Bournemouth in five terrible days left the manager scarred. His side - with eleven changes - first lost 4-1 in the Carabao Cup and then, restored to something approaching the first choice line-up, were defeated 3-0 in the league. There were difficult scenes after the second of those defeats, perhaps unsurprising with some supporters having travelled 1,000 miles in less than a week for an aggregate 7-1 defeat to a newly-promoted side under a caretaker manager.
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The World Cup break halted a slide that may not otherwise have been stopped and the November trip to Australia allowed the squad to refresh and regain belief as players returned to fitness and youth prospects shone. After six weeks to work on taking Everton forward, to return with a stoppage time defeat to Wolves, one of the few sides that spent Christmas beneath the Blues, was a disaster - as was Lampard's insistence the display held genuine positives as two poor sides living in fear of a survival fight scrapped it out on Boxing Day. Demarai Gray's sensational goal and Godfrey's standout performance against Haaland then offered Everton a platform to enter 2023 on as they earned an unexpected but deserved point at reigning Premier League champions Manchester City. But to follow that up with the capitulation to Brighton was unforgivable. It was that game that proved fatal to Lampard's reign. He oversaw three more matches but he never recovered from the humiliation of the three goals in six second half minutes as his side collapsed so severely, leaving Goodison to watch in shellshocked silence for the final 30 minutes.
The silence was the soundtrack of a fanbase with such passion questioning whether it had the willpower and energy to try and save the club again. The game marked a turning point on and off the pitch. It was the first of the season at which fan anger turned onto the board with such prominence that no-one could ignore it. The resentment, anger and sadness that had simmered for so long reached boiling point and the legacy of chaos that undermined Lampard’s job provided the backdrop to his final weeks. For the second time in a week Everton went to Manchester and Lampard’s players showed a determination to fight for him. The battling defeat at Manchester United again hinted at a resilience that could save Lampard and the 9,500 away fans at Old Trafford focused their anger on the boardroom not the dugout.
Manchester trips a false dawn for manager who could not recover frim Brighton debacle
The trip down the East Lancs was another false dawn though and the home defeat to bottom of the table Southampton was bruising for Lampard and disastrous for those above him. Everton supporters mustered their energy for another coach welcome as the fans, the club’s greatest asset, rallied once again with their blue flares and songs of passion. Yet their support was undermined by the club announcement, hours before kick-off, that its directors had been warned not to attend due to what it described as a “real and credible threat to their safety and security”. It later emerged that that conclusion, which the club said included death threats and “targeted physical aggression”, had been reached without any formal complaints to Merseyside Police and with the force having been made aware of the concerns but not been part of the wider security assessment. James Ward-Prowse’s late, winning free-kick felt inevitable to the near 40,000 who had, seconds earlier, watched Gordon bundle over Che Adams 20 yards from goal. Thousands then stayed in their seats after the final whistle to back calls for sweeping changes in the boardroom.
In the days before the Southampton match an open letter was published on behalf of Moshiri, who then made a painful appearance on the Talksport radio station that worsened an already fraught situation. He backed the board, including chairman Bill Kenwright and chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale and expressed his faith in Lampard. Lampard survived the Southampton defeat that followed but could not overcome the loss to West Ham, who like Southampton were also in the bottom three when they faced Everton, seven days later. This time the board was present, alongside Moshiri. It was the first, and only, time the owner was present to watch Lampard lead from the dugout. That in itself only serves to further highlight the dysfunction running through the club.
After 11 defeats in 14 games, 15 points from 20 league matches and with his side having suffered four consecutive home defeats, Lampard cannot argue with his fate. As he strove for progression his sides, with the exception of the trip to Man City, typically looked more vulnerable as his reign neared its 12 month anniversary. Despite this it is impossible to escape the conclusion that, more than anything, Lampard is the latest victim of the long-term failings of the wider Everton machine that is now the subject of such anger and frustration. Shackled by financial mismanagement and bound to a squad pieced together by his predecessors, he was landed with what must currently be one of the toughest jobs in English football. That he was still able to keep Everton up, build such unity with the supporters and challenge for progress despite injuries and ill-luck savaging his plans was a genuine achievement. That the relationship he worked so hard to foster with the supporters has been thrown away by the people above him is a tragedy.
Ultimately, while Lampard saved Everton from catastrophe once, even he could not work enough miracles to cover the mistakes that he inherited. The question, now, is: Can anyone?
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