You can call it temptation or willpower or call it anything you want but Frank Lampard and Graham Potter are in the same boat and here we have two managers that easily succumbed to their own temptation and paid the price for it. Case in point Frank Lampard who had decided that after hanging up his boots after a brilliantly successful club career where he won a multitude of trophies for Chelsea that he would go into management. He should have been applauded for deciding to go to Derby and manage in the Championship first and get some experience, possibly helping Derby to the play-offs and jumping ship to a bigger club and getting that reward. However after 57 games and a season that was deemed good enough for Lampard to jump from a tier 2 side to one that had won the Champions League only twelve months previously, the question is why would Lampard take the job? The easiest answer is why wouldn't you? Who could turn down that type of job? There is also the salary involved but with Lampard it was more to do with the fact of managing his old club and of course being able to manage at the highest level. Imagine that this opportunity was a one off, in that sense his thinking would be that he had to take it. Hindsight is a wonderful thing of course but Lampard would have well known his managerial capabilities, he had seen enough managers enter and leave as a player, and it seems normal to think that he got excited and went for it, rather than think if he could do a good job at the Blues.
Alas Lampard survived at Chelsea for 18 months as his bright start was found out by a lack of tactics and falling out with some key players, Chelsea dipped into 9th place by the time he was sacked. It had felt that Lampard had been found out but it had to be questioned as to why a club with Chelsea's status would go in for Lampard in the first place? Had he not been a former great would his name even be on the list? What had Lampard achieved in his managerial career to take up such a position? Nothing, and of course he couldn't be blamed for that but perhaps he can be blamed for taking the bait, for having no willpower. Does an apprentice take on a CEO job within a year?
In the circus of all grand circuses Lampard is currently the manager of Chelsea, with new owner Todd Boehly swooping in for him again. The circumstances are different in that Lampard has been brought in until the end of the season and so far after 4 games Lampard has won none. The two games in the Champions League against Real Madrid were always going to be difficult, granted. It didn't help that Boehly publically said his side would win 3-0. Did he mean in the first leg where the Blues lost 2-0 or did he mean the aggregate score where the Blues lost 4-0? Who knows. However Lampard will be better judged on the league games where he has already overseen an away defeat against Wolves and a home one against Brighton. Once can be an error of judgment but coming back again to fail just feels like Lampard is either being very naive or is chasing the money, either way he isn't coming out of this looking like an elite manager, far from it. Other clubs will be looking at this. This isn't to say that Lampard won't land a Premier League job again, because once you have your foot in the door, failure equals more opportunities in the Premier League just ask everyone from Sam Allardyce to Steve Bruce, but like them Lampard's managerial career looks like it will be encased around clubs struggling in the bottom half of the table rather than the ones who have chances to pick up silverware….
Graham Potter is another case in point and sadly another British manager who has failed when given the big job. Potter like Lampard got tempted and left a very good project at Brighton just to be sacked at Chelsea six months on. Like Lampard Potter will never have to worry about money again, but where does your career go from here in terms of managing teams that can have the ambition and clout to win trophies? Potter has been praised when manager of Brighton even if his win rate was only 31% but it seems that the players have a lot of that say given that Roberto Di Zerbi has come into the job and whisper it improved Brighton even more, despite losing one of their best players in Leandro Trossard. Potter will likely take the summer off and be back in management by the time the new season kicks off. As for Lampard the ship is sinking for the second time at the same club and so is his resume, and it will be interesting to see what job he lands next, for now he is simply looking for his next win which in all competitions would only be his 2nd win in the last 16 games.
In the race for the Premier League title one has to wonder if Arsenal who have been leading for the majority of the season have blinked first? The Gunners last two games have ended in draws, both 2-2 against Liverpool and West Ham while Manchester City have been relentless finally switched onto machine mode after a lacklustre by their standards first half to the season. The worry for Arsenal is that in both of their recent draws they were leading and against West Ham who have struggled for most of the season they were two goals up in the first ten minutes. The term bottling it may be resigned to a tabloid with limited vocabulary but it is word that seems fitting for Mikel Arteta's side at this current time. They do have a 4 point advantage still and many believe that will be seven points after they play bottom club Southampton at home this weekend. However City will have two games in hand and will also play Arsenal at the Etihad at the end of this month. Arsenal were the odds on favourites with the bookmakers just two weeks ago, but that has changed now and the feeling is that Arsenal are going to lose their grip and blow their chance.
To win the Premier League: Manchester City 1.44, Arsenal 2.75
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