Ex-Arsenal midfielder Paul Merson has explained that Chelsea should have appointed Leicester City boss Brendan Rodgers instead of going with former Blues midfielder Frank Lampard to take the club forward.
Lampard is yet to win a professional game with Chelsea ever since the start of the new season and Merson believes that the West London club has made a mistake with the 41-year-old’s appointment.
There was plenty of joy in the Chelsea camp this summer as they welcomed back a club legend in the form of Frank Lampard. The ex-England midfielder succeeded Maurizio Sarri as the Italian returned back to his native after just one season in charge of Chelsea. But the issue with Lampard is that he has only one year of managerial experience so far and that came when he was coaching Derby County in the Championship. Lampard nearly got the Rams promoted into the Premier League but the job at Chelsea was of much bigger magnitude.
More so, Chelsea was unable to sign any players in the summer transfer window as they are currently enduring a transfer ban which will keep them from bringing any other players until the summer next year. This adds to the difficulty of the job at Lampard’s end and he is still without a win in three games across all competitions this season.
Chelsea suffered a 4-0 hammering against fierce rivals Manchester United on the opening day of the Premier League season as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Red Devils took advantage of the defensive mistakes made by a young Chelsea outfit. Lampard had a chance to get his hands on his first trophy as Chelsea faced Liverpool in Istanbul for the UEFA Super Cup but unfortunately the West Londoners lost out on a penalty shootout after the game ended 2-2 and Jurgen Klopp’s Reds snatched the silverware.
And former-Arsenal midfielder Paul Merson has stated that the Chelsea management jumped in too early to hire Frank Lampard and the 51-year-old believes that Brendan Rodgers would have been a suitable appointment. While speaking to the Daily Star, Merson said, “There’s a lot of pressure on Frank Lampard to get that winning mentality, they’ve lost twice now and conceded six goals which aren’t great. They need to start well at home, or people will start questioning why they didn’t offer Brendan Rodgers the job. I’ve said before I think he would have been perfect. ‘I just think none of the top name managers wanted the Chelsea job. They’ve sold their best player by a million miles and can’t replace him because of the ban. ‘Plus there’s a lot of pressure and no job security. I don’t think people were queuing up to take it. Chelsea should win this game, but it’s a hard one for them.”
