WHEN Chelsea appointed Frank Lampard, they wanted more than just a new manager. By turning to a legend of the past, the Stamford Bridge club set in motion a process to establish a new identity for the future. Whether by design or through necessity due to the transfer embargo imposed on them, Chelsea are attempting to change their ways.
On the basis of the past few weeks, real progress is being made. Seven consecutive wins have seen Chelsea turn a corner having endured a rough start under the 41-year-old. Their progress cannot be quantified purely through points and league position, though. Something more fundamental is happening at Stamford Bridge.
With Lampard at the helm, Chelsea have become one of the most exhilarating teams to watch in the Premier League. The Blues have scored 11 times in their last four league outings with players like Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Fikayo Tomori all thriving. Lampard is giving a chance to those who previously would have been denied it.
Lampard on 7 wins in a row: “We are improving, that is the main thing in football. That's what we have been striving for since the beginning of pre-season. We have seen some positive things in those seven games." #CFC
— Chelsea News ®️ (@CFCNewsReport) October 29, 2019
Indeed, Chelsea boast a group of hungry, smart and talented players. Human nature, regardless of club allegiance and tribalism, is to encourage such traits in young people. The Blues have become the neutral’s favourite. Lampard has established a route between the club’s youth ranks and the first team and has imposed a style of dynamic, attacking football, but most impressively he has made Chelsea likeable again.
For a long time, Chelsea epitomised all that is toxic about the Premier League in its modern form. With Roman Abramovich signing the cheques they spent their way to success, accelerating the transfer market arms race that is still being contested to this day. Chelsea might have dropped out of that race somewhat in recent years, but they were the ones who blew fuel into the exhaust in the first place.
What’s more, the likes of John Terry, Diego Costa and of course Jose Mourinho were the kind of characters lionised by their own supporters, but vilified by rival fanbases. There was a bullishness and arrogance to Chelsea that made them hardened winners, yet that came at the cost of their wider appeal.
One could argue that Lampard must instil some arrogance in his young players to ensure their continued development, but for the time being he has built and harnessed Chelsea’s most likeable team since the days of Gianfranco Zola and Eidur Gudjohnsen, since before Abramovich pitched up on the Kings Road all those years ago.
Frank Lampard's Chelsea:
✅ Transfer ban
✅ No Eden Hazard
✅ 7 wins in a row
✅ 4 successive away Premier League wins
✅ Top of their UCL group✅ 4 points ahead of Arsenal
✅ 8 points ahead of Tottenham
✅ 7 points ahead of Man UnitedWorking his magic. pic.twitter.com/F9NnkoqtFv
— Football Central (@CentralFootie) October 29, 2019
What Lampard has achieved in the first few months of his Chelsea tenure is comparable to what Gareth Southgate succeeded in doing in the year or so before the 2018 World Cup. Before Southgate’s appointment, the England national team was weighed down by the baggage of its own toxic identity. In Russia, though, a young and compelling group of players shed that identity as they made a run to the semi finals.
Chelsea’s young players have demonstrated a self-awareness and wisdom that is not always common at the top level of the game. It’s not just in the stories of the Blues’ homegrown players that Lampard’s influence and Chelsea’s new identity can be found, but in the growth of Christian Pulisic, Jorginho and Mateo Kovacic. More is being squeezed out of what was already at the club.
Of course, the hope for Chelsea, just as it is for Southgate’s England, is that this will be just the start of something even bigger and better. That the Blues’ determined youngsters will grow into proven and consistent performers at the top level for years to come, but still with the principles instilled in them by Lampard evident.
This was billed as a new age for Chelsea, but not even such hyperbole could have prepared the Stamford Bridge club for what Lampard has done since his appointment. The Blues’ new identity is about more than results and performances, it’s about people. And the best success stories always have their basis in that of people.
