Frank Lampard understands why no manager has taken the Chelsea job yet with the leading candidates waiting for the season to end before beginning work.
The Blues axed Graham Potter last month and placed Lampard in charge until the end of the campaign as they began their search for another permanent boss. Several names were identified but it now looks as if Mauricio Pochettino is poised to return to the Premier League.
The former Tottenham boss has been out of work since leaving PSG but appears to be waiting until the summer to take charge. Top managers often want a pre-season with their players, rather than being thrown in mid-season, with Lampard content that both the club and the incoming manager want to bide their time.
He said: “Do they [Chelsea] need to take their time to get the right manager? Yeah, they absolutely should do. We are at that stage of the season now where we understand that we are not going to get into Europe, and other managers are probably going: ‘I’ll take a look at this and wait till pre-season when I can enforce what I want to do'.. It’s not silly on their part – we’ve got the top four in the run-in and that is going to be a difficult process of games.”
The change in the dugout and the return of Lampard hasn't resulted in an upturn in form with the Blues legend yet to avoid defeat in his five games. It leaves Chelsea very much in the bottom half as they coast until the summer with nothing to play for.
Their lavishly assembled squad is yet to gel and their games are not about to get any easier with visits both Arsenal and both Manchester clubs still on the cards whilst Newcastle head to Stamford Bridge in the final weeks of the campaign.
Lampard enjoyed huge success as a player at Stamford Bridge despite the hierarchy, led by Roman Abramovich, often changing managers. The Russian was known for his lack of patience and, whilst his business model yielded huge success, the interim boss believes he could've won even more had the club enjoyed more stability.
“I was always part of the Chelsea team that changed managers regularly. With casual hindsight it is easy to say I had great success,” he added. “I won three titles but I should have won five or six. That’s my feeling. We might have won more titles if we'd had more consistency and been able to work in one direction. And I feel like we should have done.”
Chelsea have already seen four men pick a line-up this term - Lampard, Bruno, Potter and Thomas Tuchel. Co-owner Todd Boehly is now coming under huge pressure from the fans and must get his next key decision right.
