The end for Frank Lampard at Chelsea really came away at Arsenal on Boxing Day 2020. His side, yet again, looked desperately vulnerable on the break in losing 3–1 and then, critically, he blamed the defeat on his players afterwards. Whatever faith his squad still had in him was gone in that moment. Roman Abramovich rarely hesitates before sacking a manager, and when Lampard was dismissed a month later, it felt overdue.
There were still loyalists who had loved him as a player who clung blindly to the faith that he might somehow be able to turn around a season that saw the club sink to ninth in the Premier League after a summer investment of $300 million, but the impact of Thomas Tuchel was immediate. By the end of the season Chelsea looked like a far more coherent side, beating Manchester City three times across different competitions, the last of which came in the Champions League final.
But to fail at Chelsea does not mean Lampard is a terrible manager and will necessarily fail elsewhere, and he's been given another chance after being hired by Everton on Monday. His résumé perhaps is a little thin for a club of Everton’s aspirations, but Everton has become such a basket case. Owner Farhad Moshiri has burned through six managers since taking over in early 2016, and it is almost forced to gamble. What proven manager would want to go there? Of those six, Carlo Ancelotti is the only one not to have been sacked, understandably preferring the Bernabeu to Goodison Park; Everton may be one of the few clubs in the world compared to Real Madrid that offers a manager some measure of security.
