Hello my good football people…
Look I’m not banging on about Chelsea for the last couple of weeks because they’re my team. Every back page, TV sports report, web headline and social media channel is carrying the Stamford Bridge Circus as the lead story… and so it should be!
And just when we thought it was all over, owner Todd Boehly appoints Frank Lampard as ‘interim’ coach. What more does the club think Frank can achieve than Graham Potter with nine games to go?
After a disastrous first spell in charge and terrible record at Everton, why would they think he’d be better this time around?
🚨 Frank Lampard, set to become new Chelsea caretaker manager — there’s an agreement in principle valid until the end of the current season. Here we go. 🔵![CDATA[]]>🤝![CDATA[]]>🏻
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) April 5, 2023
Lampard has accepted short-term deal.#CFC will continue process/talks to hire new head coach for long term project. pic.twitter.com/KOWtnmu3d1
And ahead of this week’s Champions League quarterfinal first leg against holder Real Madrid, has the club written it off the chances of making it to the final.
That’s three managers in a season and it will be four in a year once the full-time position is filled.
But hold on. I’m gonna go against all the negativity and try and pull out the logic.
Number 1, the fans are fucking upset, there’s a toxic atmosphere in and out of the ground.
Will the sight of a club legend on the side-line appease that? Yeah, to a certain extent I think it will.
The Super Frankie Lampard banners and songs will be out and I’m sure the atmosphere on match day will improve.
But what can he possibly achieve football-wise? Well, barring Kepa (who he fell out with) players will be given a chance to prove themselves again.
The likes of Mason Mount and Trevor Chalobah who have been squeezed out by Potter will be likely team-sheet candidates again and (ok digging deep here ) look what Roberto Di Matteo did as a caretaker coach in 2012. Led the team to one of the greatest ever Champions League victories.
I guess most importantly the interim appointment gives the board time to properly assess who will be taking the reins.
Given the ridiculous sacking of backroom staff and sickening amount of money splashed on players over such a short period of time (and subsequent calamitous position Chelsea find themselves in), hopefully Boehly will have learnt a lesson.
His typically brash American style has bitten him. He ignored advice and attempted to impress his ideology on the Premier League (a microcosm of US policy around the world).
It was an easy kicking ass assignment, but things are a bit deeper than pumping money into random players and expecting it all to click from the get-go.
As I’ve maintained since the government sanctions, the sackings, the squad size and all the tomfoolery that’s been going on at the Bridge this season, don’t expect anything to start working until the new campaign.
Make it make sense that the caretaker coach (and he’ll always be a legend as a player) puts out his first starting 11, with a back 4?
FFS, is it so hard to work out that having two of the best wingbacks in Europe (Ben Chilwell and Reece James) means best to play with a 3 at the back?
Anyway, on a personal note I started going to Chelsea in 1972 as the club was in decline, spent a couple of decades watching us struggling…I’m patient.
On to more important matters and again, excuse me harping on about it, but are you still calling me an idiot?
When Arsenal were eight points clear and I stood by my belief that Manchester City are winning it, you thought I should be locked up in Valkenberg, not giving my dumbass opinions on the premier League. Now what?
City win their game in hand (very likely) and then beat Arsenal at the Etihad (history tells us very likely) and they go top.
The Gunners are choking and Anfield was the first pull of the noose around their neck.
It was a proper “game of two halves”.
The North Londoners doing their thing in the first and run over in the second. Liverpool should have won it given the chances (and penalty miss), but either way, the title may not have been decided, but it is now in Pep’s hands.
A pulsating @PremierLeague encounter at Anfield, as Bobby Firmino’s late header earned the Reds a point ✊ pic.twitter.com/3yTtaw4B2u
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) April 9, 2023
As for the relegation battle… Madness! Massive result for 5-1 for Crystal Palace at Leeds, I reckon the Eagles stay up.
A five-star performance from Palace on the weekend saw them make it two wins in two and open up a six-point buffer to the relegation zone 🔥 pic.twitter.com/cxPd9ej909
— Premier League (@premierleague) April 10, 2023
So hard to call the bottom three. For me it’s Southampton, Nottingham Forest and Leeds. Back to Champions League action on Tuesday night as Bayern go to City and Wednesday, Real Madrid host Chelsea, god knows what’s gonna happen there?
Don’t be surprised if the Blues pull of a decent result (or get banged 5-0). Chat next week…