Abramovich statement on Lampard sacking

Frank Lampard’s fate was sealed after the Leicester City loss. That’s according to The Athletic, who have been at the forefront of the reporting since the Manchester City loss, much to Lampard’s own vocal displeasure.

And unsurprisingly, The Athletic do already have a tell-all “how it all went wrong” for Lampard, replete with all the usual things: deteriorating relationship with Granovskaia, unhappy players in the dressing room (i.e. those who weren’t playing and talking to the media instead), Lampard’s own unhappiness with the politics at the club, and so on and so forth. Standard stuff, really, with the only difference being that Lampard’s an absolute legend of the club.

His status and what he means to modern Chelsea was further underlined by the fact that it was Roman Abramovich who provided the statement for the official sack notice. That’s pretty rare, even for a man who sacks managers out of habit and routine.

“This was a very difficult decision for the Club, not least because I have an excellent personal relationship with Frank and I have the utmost respect for him.

“He is a man of great integrity and has the highest of work ethics. However, under current circumstances we believe it is best to change managers.

“On behalf of everyone at the Club, the Board and personally, I would like to thank Frank for his work as Head Coach and wish him every success in the future. He is an important icon of this great club and his status here remains undiminished. He will always be warmly welcomed back at Stamford Bridge.”

-Roman Abramovich; source: Chelsea FC

And the statement checks all the boxes, a hat-trick of cliches not seen before in the Abramovich Era! (This is obviously a bit light-hearted, but we could use a bit of levity right now.)

For a review of Lampard’s tenure, from a more tactical, analytical perspective, I do recommend last week’s Double Pivot podcast.