He asked for Arsenal forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who was considering leaving Emirates Stadium at that juncture, and Ajax’s attacking midfielder Hakim Ziyech. Neither arrived that month — a deal for the latter was agreed in February but too late to help the 2019-20 campaign.
Lampard’s growing frustration was evident during some tense post-match briefings with the media, which implied criticism of the hierarchy for the lack of new arrivals. One source said he was not happy behind the scenes either and described the bond with Granovskaia as “not being fantastic”.
Another claimed that it was at this juncture that Mauricio Pochettino, who had been fired by Tottenham in November 2019, and RB Leipzig coach Nagelsmann were being mentioned as a potential “plan B”.
But there was no way Lampard could be removed after leading Chelsea to fourth spot and an FA Cup final, albeit losing out on the trophy to rivals Arsenal. Having introduced a number of academy players into the senior set-up, significantly more than any of his predecessors had done before, he deserved credit. Significantly his relationship with owner Roman Abramovich was still considered to be strong.
However, as one insider puts it, things were becoming more tense with Granovskaia and one of the biggest points of contention was the treatment of goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Chelsea paid a world-record fee for a keeper in 2018 when Kepa joined from Athletic Bilbao for £71.6 million. After a series of high-profile errors, Lampard left him out in favour of Willy Caballero for six games between January and February. The latter also started the FA Cup semi-final, FA Cup final and the must-win Premier League game against Wolves on the final day.
During the close season, things came to a head or as one individual put it: “They clashed over Kepa. Lampard put in a request for a replacement and was told he should try putting his arm around Kepa, to help build his confidence. Lampard was insistent though.”
Kepa was one of a number of senior players who felt that Lampard did not provide him with clear tactical instructions or offer sufficient support as his confidence disintegrated last season. Instead it was left to director Granovskaia and Cech to try to help the club’s record signing through his slump. Communication between the Spaniard and his head coach improved in the early weeks of this campaign, but that change in approach was rendered meaningless by the swift arrival of Edouard Mendy from Rennes to replace him as Chelsea’s first-choice goalkeeper.
Kepa’s displays in the opening two games against Brighton and Liverpool perhaps helped Lampard’s argument that a change was needed.
The busy transfer window, when Chelsea spent in excess of £200 million, provided other angst. Lampard was looking to move defender Antonio Rudiger on, an individual thought to be held in high regard by the Chelsea hierarchy.
Lampard wanted the club to sign West Ham midfielder Declan Rice and pushed for him again ahead of January. But some at the club had reservations about re-signing the player who was released from the academy as a teenager.
In December
The Athletic were told: “He needs to stop pushing for Rice or he’ll lose his job. The hierarchy are very wary about the potential embarrassment of buying back an academy reject at huge expense.”
As far as the market is concerned, there is always speculation about which signing was driven by the manager and what was more of a club purchase. Chelsea have always maintained that a head coach is consulted and gives approval to any new arrival.
That doesn’t stop people who work in the game from giving their interpretation of what took place, including on Chelsea’s last big spree. One insider alleges that of the six to join, only Ben Chilwell was a Lampard target.
His intention from the get-go was to reshape the defence. The plan was not only to acquire Rice, who Lampard felt could be converted into a top centre-back as well as using him as a defensive midfielder, but also to buy James Tarkowski from Burnley. Defenders earmarked to go were Fikayo Tomori, Marcos Alonso and Rudiger. There was even talk that Lampard was open to the idea of captain Cesar Azpilicueta departing.
In the end all four players stayed beyond the summer, which was another major factor in why Rice didn’t come as well as Tarkowski. With the club spending vast sums, money had to be raised to afford their fees too. Granovskaia is also said to have not been too keen on the latter.
Instead, the club moved for Brazil international Thiago Silva, who was given a contract after being released by Paris Saint-Germain. The veteran wasn’t on Lampard’s radar beforehand, but he certainly wasn’t opposed to having someone of his experience and leadership join a group that was lacking in these two areas.
Silva has proved to be a good bit of business, for the short term at least. But with Werner and another expensive summer recruit Kai Havertz struggling to make any impact in English football, it was inevitable this would come under negative scrutiny, raise questions and alarm. The Germany internationals were seen as key acquisitions to help Chelsea challenge Liverpool for the title but scored just five Premier League goals between them in the first three months.
Werner operated more as a left winger rather than left centre-forward while Havertz, mostly due to the impact of contracting COVID-19, ended 2020 with three successive appearances as a substitute. This coincided with Chelsea picking up four points out of 15 before losing 3-1 to Manchester City.
“The problem Lampard had with Marina is obvious but fundamental,” one agent said. “He has a series of huge investments he does not have the ability to maximise, but more than that, he appears to have given up on attempting to maximise them. The public criticism of individuals (most notably after the 3-1 loss to Arsenal) has lost him support too.”
But when a table emerged showing Lampard boasted the joint-worst points-per-game ratio of any Chelsea manager in the Abramovich era, then it was always going to lead to concerns, regardless of what was going on behind the scenes. And as a source told
The Athletic after the Manchester City game, Roman became “very, very unhappy”.
And then came the Leicester City game. Chelsea were outclassed by Brendan Rodgers’ side and Abramovich was furious, he’d seen enough. The next morning was spent on calls trying to get a deal for an interim or permanent coach over the line. Lampard’s time was up. In the dressing room after the game, Lampard felt this too. He shook his players’ hands and thanked them for their efforts under him. The mood was sombre.
The calls to Germany started, with former Leipzig coach Rangnick offered the role until the end of the season, the idea being that he moved into a different role at that point. He turned them down due to the short length of the deal.
The hierarchy were determined to bring in a German speaker to bring out the best in Werner and Havertz, talking to former PSG manager Tuchel too and hitting a brick wall in initial discussions with Leipzig about Nagelsmann.
Tuchel was reluctant to come midway through the season initially but was eventually persuaded, having almost taken the Stamford Bridge job before Antonio Conte a few years ago. He felt it was too good a job to turn down. Lampard’s time was up.
One aspect that always gets mentioned whenever a Chelsea manager loses his job is the notion that he “lost the dressing room”. There are suggestions from more than one individual that this was a factor for Lampard too and it was certainly the case in the final weeks.
Before this run of form though, perhaps a note of caution is required. It is inevitable that those connected to individuals who play less regularly are going to have more negative things to say than people associated with first-team regulars.
But in talking to various contacts and people close to even those who do play most weeks, a general theme emerged and if these things were being relayed to
The Athletic, you can expect perhaps even more forthright opinions to reach Granovskaia’s ears.
“The problem was, the manager didn’t talk to the players — well only the ones he liked,” one such source explains. “I know of players who weren’t in the team that didn’t hear from him for many months. That’s very frustrating for a player because you don’t know what you have to do to do better, what the manager is thinking. It’s crazy.
“Obviously when Chelsea were on their 17-game unbeaten run (between September and December), the coach is not going to make too many changes. But you still need to talk to people. Players are going to be wary about knocking on the manager’s door themselves because it can be perceived negatively.”
Another added: “It was very weird for me that Lampard’s way of working was to be distant to the players. He was a player until very recently (retired 2016). He should know how to approach players but he seemed to have forgotten.”
And one more said: “The communication of Lampard with the players was not fluent. When I met with one of the players last year I was asking if the manager was telling him things. He said to me: ‘No, but usually he never speaks to the players’. I said I could not understand that because Lampard needs a professional relationship with every player. You need to know players need information and guidance.”
One player told
The Athletic that Lampard staying on for the rest of the season would have been a “catastrophe”, with the levels of tension in the dressing room too high to recover from and players comparing his criticism of performances to Jose Mourinho in his final days at the club.
There was also a feeling that as form started to dip that the regular changes to the starting line-up prevented players from building a system and confidence. The squad, for example, could all see how talented Werner is but were horrified to see the confidence drain out of him as he was put in and out of the starting XI.
There were some other flashpoints too. The first indication that all was not well behind the scenes this season came with Marcos Alonso’s show of disrespect by leaving to watch the second half of Chelsea’s 3-3 draw at West Brom after being substituted at half-time. The left-back hasn’t played for the club since. “What happened with Alonso raised a red flag in terms of Lampard being able to control the dressing room,” one source claims.
After having the disadvantage of not being able to buy players in his first year, the arrival of six new members brought a different kind of problem, especially as Chelsea failed to get many fringe players out. The only significant departures were Pedro and Willian but they were out of contract anyway.
Attempts were made to move certain people on, however the impact of COVID-19 on football clubs around the world meant there were few takers. The high wages Chelsea players are on meant only a handful of loan deals (Ross Barkley, Davide Zappacosta, Victor Moses, Tiemoue Bakayoko) took place. It left a bloated squad for Lampard to deal with.
“You didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure it out,” says one contact. “There were too many influential voices outside of the starting XI causing issues. There was a danger of a bit of a divide developing between those playing and those who weren’t. The body language of some told a story. There were those who weren’t putting in the same effort as others in training. Like a disease, you get issues and it spreads. It obviously got a lot worse when Chelsea began losing regularly.”
“Ole pulling wins out of his ass when shyt gets tough”
