"My opinion is Frank will go a long way in management and I'm not just saying that, I have a reason behind it. I think he has got the right temperament for it. He has got the right commitment for it as well. I'm not always sure that is the case with very, very high level players, they come out of football and they don't have that work ethic, that desire and he really does. He is really, really conscientious, really conscientious."
Paul Clement has seen everything in football. As a coach he has worked with Carlo Ancelotti at some of the biggest clubs in the world. As a manager he has saved a Premier League underdog from the drop even though they appeared destined for relegation.
Those are his words on Frank Lampard. They did not end there. While speaking to the ECHO in Washington DC this summer, he continued: "He lives, eats, breathes his job. He talks about it until late, he is on it right from the morning. When he was on holiday he was on the phones and messages. He is fully immersed in it and I think that is the only way you can be as a manager if you want to do it properly."
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Lots of football supporters and pundits took a pop at Lampard during his opening months at Everton. Even when he helped secure the Blues' Premier League status the opinions of some was that all he had done was take a team that were 16th when he arrived and help them to finish 16th months later. That lazy analysis ignored so much about the Premier League death spiral Everton were in when he was appointed at Goodison Park - not that Lampard was aware of the claim.
For their part, Everton supporters could not care less. The heady celebrations that followed the crucial win over Crystal Palace came after weeks of a newly-united fanbase setting off smoke bombs and singing 'Super Frank' as they battled their way to safety.
As we approach a new season, Frank Lampard has a lot of good will in the bank from Blues. And against the backdrop of financial issues and frustration over the club's performance over recent years, many understand there is a wider context at play should he fail to take the club forward on the pitch. This does not mean he does not have points to prove. Last season, saving Everton felt like a psychological challenge in which his man management skills came to the fore. Now the rest of his skillset - tactics, transfer acumen, forward planning - will fall under scrutiny.
But Clement is convinced the man who reached the highest levels as a player can do so as a manager. And even if he is still learning, his support network suggests Everton's players could hardly wish for a better set up to help their development.
Everton's success this season could rely on the roles of their wide defenders, likely to initially be Vitalii Mykolenko and Nathan Patterson. In first team coach Ashley Cole, Under-18s manager Leighton Baines and club captain Seamus Coleman it is unlikely any full back or wing back in the Premier League era has had a better support network. Lampard has spoken of assistant manager Joe Edwards' drive and personal skills while Clement has been everywhere and done everything. Chris Jones, another coach who concentrates on fitness, has won Premier League titles and the Champions League as a member of Chelsea's backroom staff. And then there is Lampard. Everton need to find goals from midfield this season and in him they have one of the Premier League's most prolific of all time.
This is not to say Everton will not have a challenging season. The early stages of the transfer window have brought new faces but the loss of Richarlison is a hammer blow to a squad that only just avoided relegation last year. Profit and sustainability limits have reduced Lampard and director of football Kevin Thelwell's purchasing power and several clubs around them have strengthened. Lampard, as much promise as he may have in the eyes of Clement, is still learning too.
But should Everton find themselves in the midst of another difficult season there will be a much wider context at play than the club's backroom staff which, with the passionate fanbase that helped pull the players to safety last year, are two areas the club should be able to use as a foundation for the progress so desperately craved.
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