COVENTRY have named Frank Lampard as their new head coach, with a two-and-a-half-year contract.
The 46-year-old will lead the Sky Blues for the first time on Saturday, when they face Cardiff at the Coventry Building Society Arena.
Lampard will be accompanied by instructors Joe Edwards and Chris Jones.
The former Everton and Chelsea manager has been out of job since finishing his second term at Stamford Bridge in May 2023, but he is the frontrunner to follow Mark Robins at the Ricoh Arena.
Robins was unexpectedly fired earlier this month, having guiding the Sky Blues from League Two to a Championship play-off final and FA Cup semi-final in seven seasons.
Coventry defeated Middlesbrough 3-0 at the Riverside Stadium, his most recent victory. Rhys Carr then took over as caretaker manager and was in the dugout when the Sky Blues came back from 2-0 down to tie at Sunderland.
Doug King, Coventry’s owner and executive chairman, said: “I am happy that Frank Lampard has agreed to join our team as head coach. Frank honed his skills in the Championship and understands what it takes to be successful here.
“His experiences thereafter at Chelsea and Everton will ensure he brings to our talented squad clear understanding of exactly what is needed to succeed at the very top level that we as a club are striving to reach.”
Lampard, 46, resigned as a player in 2017 and took on his first managerial post at Derby in May 2018, leading the club to the Sky Bet Championship play-off final in his debut season.
Derby lost to Aston Villa in the final, and Lampard returned to Stamford Bridge, where he had spent 13 years as a player, signing a three-year contract to succeed Maurizio Sarri as manager.
Lampard led Chelsea to fourth place in the Premier League and the FA Cup final, where they lost 2-1 to Arsenal, but after a disappointing season in which they finished ninth, he was fired in January 2021.
After a year away from football, Lampard was named Everton’s new manager in 2022, however he was fired after less than a year in command.
Everton avoided relegation on the penultimate day of the previous season, but after nine defeats in their first 12 Premier League games the following season, Lampard was replaced by Sean Dyche.
Chelsea reappointed Lampard as caretaker manager till the rest of the season in April 2023 after sacking Graham Potter, although the former England player won just one of his 11 games in command.
Lampard, who played for Chelsea for 21 years, is the club’s all-time leading scorer, with 211 goals in 648 games, and his 106 England caps rank him joint-seventh with Sir Bobby Charlton.
Leave a Reply