It’s a happy first Father’s Day as Blues boss for Frank Lampard today with the manager enjoying an instant bond with the Goodison Park faithful from the time of his arrival in late January and much of that personality is credited as coming from his own footballing dad. After Lampard’s side defeated Brentford 4-1 in his first game in charge, his wife Christine took to Instagram to confirm she and her children are “part of the Everton family”, sharing a photograph of the couple’s son Freddie and daughter Patricia wearing Everton replica shirts.
That now makes doting dad Lampard, who also has two teenage daughters Luna and Isla from a previous relationship with Elen Rivas, ‘an Everton Da’ himself and he has mentioned his two younger children during Blues press conferences. When Everton were denied what looked like a blatant spot-kick after Manchester City’s Rodri handled the ball in his own area late in the Premier League champions’ 1-0 success at Goodison Park, Lampard told reporters: “I’ve got a three-year-old daughter at home that could tell you that’s a penalty.”
Whatever Father’s Day presents Lampard might be opening today, his side are still to receive any gifts from the FA with an apology from Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) chief Mike Riley bringing them now tangible benefits and the Everton manager subsequently being fined £30,000 for comments made over a challenge in which Anthony Gordon went down in the area against Liverpool at Anfield but was not awarded a penalty, an incident that the PGMOL again said they’d have had “no complaints” over had the referee pointed to the spot.
Back in March when previewing Everton’s home game with Wolverhampton Wanderers, Lampard mentioned his son when asked whether he had watched Wolves’ 4-0 win over Watford the previous night. He said: “It was my son’s first birthday yesterday, which has flown by. I was juggling, as we do as parents, all of us at times – he’s not that aware of his birthday obviously – to do the family thing but watch the games of course.”
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During the aforementioned FA Cup success over the Bees – the largest margin of victory from an Everton manager in his opening match, Lampard became only the second Blues boss appointed by Farhad Moshiri to have his name sang (positively) by the club’s supporters after Carlo Ancelotti with the chants of “Super Frankie Lampard.” The Goodison crowd couldn’t say “There’s only one Frank Lampard” of course because the Everton manager is the younger half of one of football’s most famous father and son duos.
Tony Cottee, another former Goodison fans’ favourite with roots in London’s East End, believes that much of the Everton manager’s will to succeed comes from his father, whose name he obviously shares. Shortly after Lampard’s appointment, Cottee told the ECHO : “I think a lot of Frank’s character comes from his dad.
“Believe it or not I’m actually old enough to have played with both Frank Lampard junior and Frank Lampard senior! My first full season at West Ham was Frank senior’s last season, obviously I had six great years at Everton and then after I’d gone back to West Ham and I was very much a senior player, young Frank was coming through with Rio Ferdinand.
“I got to be a team-mate with both of them and I think young Frank certainly learned a lot from his dad who was one of the most-disciplined, best trainers I’ve ever seen in terms of putting in extra hard work and maintaining the standards he set. I was Frank senior’s apprentice at West Ham and in training I’d have to chip the balls into the box for him and he’d volley them into the net and he’d do extra sprint training.
“He was already well into his 30s by this stage but I looked at him and thought ‘wow, what a fantastic pro.’ There was him and Billy Bonds, two senior players who set such a great example.”
Cottee added: “What I really admire about young Frank comes from the experience he had at West Ham. When he first came through, everyone was saying ‘it’s only because of his dad, his uncle, Harry Redknapp is the manager,’ and that must have been really hard for him.
“We could all see that there was a talented player there but he was purely being judged on what was seen at the time as nepotism. That must have put huge pressure on Frank and even after he’d made his big-money move to Chelsea I think most of the West Ham fans were still saying ‘how have we got £11million for him, he’s never worth that’ but when you look at what he went to achieve at Stamford Bridge, that fee was an absolute snip.
“I admire Frank for going to Chelsea and proving to everyone that it wasn’t about him being in the team because of his family connections, he was there because he was a fantastic player and great goalscorer. I think he’ll take all this into the management side of things now.”
