Unlike predecessor Rafael Benitez, Frank Lampard ‘gets Everton’ and it’s best for both him and the club if he stays on as manager next season regardless of what division they are in. As their all-time leading goalscorer and as Football.London’s chief Chelsea correspondent Adam Newson told the ECHO before last weekend’s fixture, as someone widely-regarded as being their best-ever player, Lampard will always, quite rightly, be a true legend at Stamford Bridge but that was his past and the Blues of Merseyside are now very much his present and hopefully future too.
The bond between Lampard and Everton’s loyal but long-suffering supporters was an instantaneous one. His name was sung (positively) by the Goodison Park faithful from his first game in charge, the 4-1 victory over Brentford in the FA Cup, an accolade only afforded to one other of Farhad Moshiri’s half dozen hirings in the dugout, Carlo Ancelotti, and the mutual affection and respect has been there ever since, regardless of results.
Any potential doubters, and there can’t have been many of them, who might have wondered where Lampard’s loyalties lied when Everton faced his previous employers on Sunday need only look at the Blues boss’ reaction when Richarlison’s goal hit the back of Edouard Mendy’s net - or the way he again went over the salute the Gwladys Street after the final whistle following another emotionally-charged day. In contrast, despite being one of the most-dedicated professionals in the game it took Phil Neville over three years and a bone-crunching tackle on former Manchester United team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo until Evertonians finally accepted the ex-Old Trafford stalwart as truly one of their own.
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In his pre-match press conference to preview Chelsea’s visit, Lampard was thrown a googly when asked whether he’d want to stick around and lead Everton in the Championship if the worst happens later this month. Although the 43-year-old doesn’t want to publicly acknowledge that possibility at this stage – and is probably well aware that it could be a decision taken out of his hands – stressing that he didn’t want to get drawn on that question, he did say: “I’ve loved every minute of being at this club. Sometimes people from the outside ask me because of the position we’re in: ‘Are you enjoying it? How tough is it?’ with all the pressures of it, but I absolutely love it.
“I’ve been welcomed incredibly well by the fans and supported by them and I will do everything to get this club back to where I want it to be. I’m not going to jump into the future and see what maybe happens, it’s not worth doing that and answering that question but in terms of my dedication to this job, I’ll absolutely give it everything for as long as Everton want me here and I can get them to where I think we can get to.”
While it’s not been easy, Lampard has, despite what some have claimed, improved results. The Blues’ survival hopes have been skewed by Burnley’s dramatic revival since long-serving manager Sean Dyche was surprisingly sacked on Good Friday after almost a decade in charge.
The Clarets had won just four of their 30 Premier League matches all season – including last month’s 3-2 comeback win over Everton – but have subsequently picked up 10 points in four games under their Scouse caretaker boss Mike Jackson, a gaffer whose previous stints in lower division dugouts brought win rates of 15.8% and 23.1% of his short spells in charge of Shrewsbury Town and Tranmere Rovers respectively. It seems as though Turf Moor chiefs have made a desperate gamble that might end up paying off for them but Everton can ultimately only control their own results and despite Burnley’s revival, their destiny remains in their own hands.
As demoralising as it might have been to see the East Lancashire side come back from a goal down to win 2-1 at Watford with a couple of strikes in the last seven minutes, the Blues’ subsequent 1-0 victory against Chelsea ensured they ended a weekend in which they faced last year’s European champions and a side currently third in the table without losing any ground on Burnley, who had been playing a team who look set to follow Norwich City as being the next to have their relegation confirmed. Also, potentially crucially, Leeds United’s 4-0 thrashing at home to leaders Manchester City has brought the Yorkshiremen back into Everton’s orbit and indeed even closer to Lampard’s side given that unlike the Clarets, they have an inferior goal difference to the Blues who could leapfrog them both should they win their game in hand.
Ahead of last weekend’s fixtures, this correspondent was sent a press release from a bookmaker headlined “Lampard the only managerial change to have a negative impact on survival chances” on the premise that unlike Jackson for Dyche at Burnley; Jesse Marsch for Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds; Steven Gerrard for Dean Smith at Aston Villa and Eddie Howe for Steve Bruce at Newcastle United, Everton’s relegation odds had shortened since he came in (Smith for Daniel Farke at Norwich City plus Watford’s two switches from Claudio Ranieri for Xisco Munoz and then Roy Hodgson for Ranieri both seem to have been conveniently omitted). The Blues might indeed be more likely to go down now than at the time of Lampard’s appointment from a sheer betting odds point of view but that is down to Burnley’s already mentioned shock upsurge rather than an Everton downturn in results.
The accompanying quote of “Everton have suffered a huge decline since appointing Frank Lampard” is totally inaccurate but then lots of people like to push their certain agendas. Everton have not declined under Lampard whatsoever. The 1-0 win over Chelsea gives the current Blues boss 13 points from 13 matches, so that points per game average is easy enough to work out.
Benitez took 19 points from 19 games so they’re level in that respect but the Spaniard picked up just six points from his last 13 matches in charge – less than half his successor’s tally so far – with what chairman Bill Kenwright subsequently described as an “unacceptably disappointing” run of form.
Here was the most-controversial appointment in the history of the most-passionate city in English football but while the crowd could never warm to him, most Evertonians were prepared to give him a chance and it was his dire results not previous employment across Stanley Park that meant he had to go.
The Spaniard claimed that his long-time residency on Merseyside ensured he understands the city and what Blues fans want but they certainly weren’t being served up anything resembling that over the last couple of months of his short but disastrous tenure. Despite the trademark fall-outs which led to dirty washing being aired in public and two of the squad’s most-creative forces James Rodriguez and then Lucas Digne – incredibly less than a week before the manager was sacked – out of the Goodison Park exit door, Benitez continued to spout the mantra that his teams always do well in the second half of seasons, something he reiterated to Alan Shearer in a sympathetic interview in the Athletic last month.
While in charge of Liverpool, Benitez was remembered for his infamous “facts” rant against Manchester United’s Sir Alex Ferguson but like the Everton ‘huge decline’ under Lampard trope, or should that be ‘tripe’, such claims just don’t stack up in reality. This correspondent did his homework back in December and made the calculations to discover that out of Benitez’s 17 full seasons in European football, less than half of them (seven) have produced more points in the second half of the campaign than the first and during his first post in England at Liverpool, he did not produce an improved second half of a season until his fourth year in charge.
Everton were only going one way under Benitez – down. It remains to be seen whether Lampard can save them but it’s difficult to imagine the kind of atmosphere and performance the Blues supporters and players produced to defeat Chelsea on Sunday under his predecessor. His attitude has revived a browbeaten and divided fanbase and given them their identity back.
If the Blues do still suffer a first relegation for 71 years it will not be down to Lampard’s shortcomings. Yes, while he was a Premier League great as a player, he’s still a relatively inexperienced manager who is still learning on the job but after some early naivety like trying to be bold at Tottenham Hotspur and getting hammered 5-0, the recent hard-working and solid displays against Manchester United, Chelsea and even Liverpool – despite hectoring from the neighbours over a pragmatic approach in a similar vein to their lectures about ‘Rafa’ and what he would bring – have shown an increasing understand of what is required in this dogfight.
Not only does Lampard enjoy the backing of those in the stands but unlike Benitez, who was very much Mr Moshiri’s pick despite reservations from others among Goodison’s corridors of power, it is also understood he was also the universal choice of all the board. Not since the long-serving David Moyes, the last Blues boss that the current owner did not deal with, have the club employed a manager who seems to truly know what Evertonians want and is able to harness the power of the fans to produce it.
As The Times’ Northern Football Correspondent Paul Joyce, a journalist who knows the Merseyside patch as well as anyone observed in his match report from the win over Chelsea, here was: “A club, a team, a crowd, a manager in perfect harmony, working in unison to conjure a dramatic result.” That's why whatever Everton’s fate come May 22, Lampard should remain the man on the touchline attempting to revive their fortunes next season.
