Lampard, Frank

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Frank Lampard

Written by Butch and last updated in August 2008

In an era when, thanks to Roman Abramovich, Chelsea Football Club are not wanting for money, it speaks volumes for some of the more intangible aspects of football that the heartbeat in Chelsea’s midfield is none other than talisman Frank Lampard.

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Give any manager in world football 50 million quid to spend on one player and I’ll be absolutely astounded if any of them (except maybe his uncle Harry at Portsmouth) would pick Frank. However, his value for Chelsea simply cannot be overstated. In a team full of world-class footballers, Frank is part of a quartet with Petr Cech, John Terry and Didier Drogba, whose absence would simply make Chelsea just not the same. As a matter of fact, it is my firm belief that he, more than anyone else, is the heartbeat of Chelsea. Terry and Cech may form the lock on the gate, Makelele may be the pace-maker, Didier may provide the ammunition, but Frank does so many things that you simply could not replace him with one player and hope that the team functions in the same way without him.

But absence is not something you would associate with Frankie Lamps anyway. Take, for instance, the 2006-2007 season where Frank took part in all but one competitive match for Chelsea. That is a staggering amount of games for any one player to be involved in and is a tribute to his fitness, while also testament to his importance to the team. Jose Mourinho said in an interview prior to one of the games when Lampard was on the bench that there are no supermen, just footballers. You knew who he was talking about, and Chelsea fans can also appreciate that Frank Lampard is as close to a superman as there is in football.

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Frank joined Chelsea back in 2001, June 14th to be exact, signed by Claudio Ranieri from West Ham for 11 million quid. At the time, all and sundry were claiming it to be a complete waste of money. The West Ham fans were claiming good riddance, citing the likes of Joe Cole and Michael Carrick as more important for their club (how ironic of course that neither of those players currently plays for them). Though I cannot of course claim to know for certain, my personal opinion is that a lot of the bad feeling shown to Frank was for the fact that he seemed all too ready to quit the Hammers. Even then, who could blame him when the club turned their backs on his uncle (Harry Redknapp) and his father (then recently ex-coach).

Many Chelsea fans were unconvinced, particularly keeping in mind the transfer fee, but I always felt we were getting good value. How happy I am to see Frank blossom into the player he has become for Chelsea. As a matter of fact, one of my greatest joys in watching Chelsea is to see the slow but steady progression of Frank Lampard from a run-of-the-mill English midfielder, full of grit and determination, not to mention work ethic, to a classy midfielder, still determined, still hardworking, yet now with class and an astute football mind. The number of goals he gets, as well as the consistency from season to season, is testament to Lamps’ hard work and understanding of where he needs to be on a football pitch at all times.

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Frank James Lampard shares my wife’s birthday (that annual cake means a lot to me), June 20th, but in 1978. He was born in Romford Essex and began his West Ham career in 1994, being loaned out for a few months at Swansea in the 1995-1996 season. His career at Chelsea did begin slowly, but surely – I still remember the missed passes and wayward shots, particularly the latter – and it wasn’t until the 2003-2004 season where it really took flight. The year before, Frank had helped Chelsea into a 4th place finish in the league, beating Liverpool 2-1 at Stamford Bridge on the final day of the season (goals from Desailly and Gronkjaer), and winning a Champions League qualifying berth. That result is widely believed by Chelsea fans to have played its part in enticing Roman Abramovich and his billions. The rest, as they say, is history.

The following season, despite all the comings and goings, particularly the comings – Geremi, Glen Johnson, Joe Cole, Claude Makelele, Adrian Mutu, and Juan Sebastien Veron – Frank Lampard continued where he had left off the season before and produced his best performance yet at Chelsea, lifting them to second in the league, and a Champions League semi-final.

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At the season’s end (2003-2004), the man who had brought Frank to Stamford Bridge and nurtured him into one of the prominent midfielders in the world, Claudio Ranieri, left Chelsea and a new manager was brought in and entrusted with moulding the expensively assembled squad into a trophy winning juggernaut. Such changes would make any football player understandably anxious. However, credit to Jose Mourinho, he immediately identified the two most important players at the club in John Terry and Frank Lampard and installed them as club captain and vice-captain, respectively, and crucially giving them the chance to cement themselves in Chelsea folklore.

Frank Lampard has not looked back. He scored 19 goals from midfield en route to the Carling Cup title, another Champions League semi-final, but most importantly, only Chelsea’s second top flight league title ever and its first in 50 years!

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The most memorable picture I have in my mind, and one I’ll take to my grave, is that of Frank Lampard, who had already scored to give Chelsea a 1-0 lead, rush forward from the half-way line with the ball at his feet, charge into the Bolton penalty area, round the helpless Jussi Jääskeläinen in goal, and pass the ball into the empty net for an unassailable 2-0 lead which made sure of that Premiership title.

It moved me to tears, still gives me goosebumps when I recall it, and is simply my happiest moment ever as a Chelsea supporter. Having put in a stellar season, Frank also received the Football Writer’s Association Footballer of the Year Award.

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The 2005-2006 season brought with it another Premier League title, and on a personal level, Frank finished with 20 goals in all competitions (his 16 in the league was the most by a midfield player ever in the history of the EPL) and runner-up to Ronaldinho in FIFA’s World Footballer of the Year stakes. Frank was also selected as a member of the FIFPro World XI (voted for by football professionals in 40 countries) and awarded the Barclays Special Merit Award for Most Consecutive Premiership Appearances as he beat David James’ previous record of 160 (He made a total of 164 consecutive premiership appearances for Chelsea before illness forced him to miss a match).

In the 2006-2007 season, Frank Lampard played an important part in Chelsea competing on all fronts. Up until April, Chelsea were still involved in all four major competitions that they had entered at the beginning of the season, already having dispatched of Arsenal in the Carling Cup final, reaching the FA Cup finals at the new Wembley, reaching the Champions League semi-final yet again, and pushing Man Utd all the way in the league.

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Frank scored a total of 21 goals in all competitions, and although Chelsea’s season finally caught up with them as they were knocked out of Europe and could not keep up the chase in the premier league, Frank played a huge part in the FA Cup final, helping Chelsea gain a strangle hold of the midfield battle all throughout the game and then supplying the killer wall-pass for Drogba to latch on to for the winning goal for Chelsea’s 5th major piece of domestic silverware since Jose Mourinho took over in 2004 (not counting the Charity Shield). Next season, Frank will likely be as determined as ever, if not more so, to get to the Champions League final and win it, having reached the semi-finals 3 times in the last 4 years!

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As previously mentioned, Frank Lampard’s importance to the club cannot be overstated. Chelsea fans were living in increased consternation at the number of rumours that Frank was on his way out, never mind that the source of most of these rumours were of the most questionable sort. Gentleman as he always is, face of Chelsea, and love of the fans, Frank Lampard put all the rumours over his future to bed when he said after the 2007 FA Cup final, in front of the millions of watching football fans, that Chelsea was his club, the fans were his people, and that he wanted to remain at Chelsea forever.

In 2007/08, Frank missed the early part of the season with a thigh injury, though his return to the side in early October coincided with an improvement in Chelsea's form and a gradual climb up the league table. He was to miss another six weeks after picking up another injury in the congested holiday season's fixtures, in what was quickly becoming an extremely frustrating season.

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In a rather stop-start season by his high standards, tragedy struck in April with the death of Frank's mother. However, his courage and nerve showed in abundance as he stroked home a vital Champions League semi-final penalty against Liverpool, helping the Blues to their first Champions League Final. Despite ultimately finishing second to Man Utd in the league and losing to the same team on penalties in the Champions League Final, his aforementioned semi-final goal against Liverpool would rank among the season's lasting images.

Though not as prolific as in recent seasons, Frank ended the season with 16 goals from 35 games, 10 in the league, four in the Champions League (including his Semi-final and Finale goals), and 1 in the FA Cup. With this accomplishment, he has comfortably become Chelsea's all-time high scoring midfielder.

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The 2008 summer transfer season was an anxious one for Frank's fans as Inter, under the stewardship of their newly installed manager, Jose Mourinho, unsurprisingly targeted Frank as their trophy signing. Despite always professing his love for the club, rumour had it that Frank genuinely was considering a change of scenery, with a breakdown in relationships between the player and the Chelsea hierarchy being cited as a possible reason.

Also, it was rumoured that Chelsea would only give Frank a 4-year deal while the player wanted a 5-year deal that would see him end his playing career at the Blues. Thankfully, after much uncertainty, Frank Lampard and Chelsea Football Club have agreed on a new 5-year deal that will ultimately see Frank finish his playing career here at the club after what would be 13 years of service, further enhancing his "legend" status with the fans.

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Under the stewardship of Felipe Scolari, and with the addition of a new team mate in Deco for the Chelsea midfield, Frank Lampard will be hoping to wrestle the EPL title away from Man Utd and hoist the Champions League trophy aloft for the first time in the Blues history. That would certainly be a feat befitting one of the club's greatest ever players. And if Frank's pre-season performances are anything to go by - the world class chip over the keeper's head from just outside the penalty area against Pharmaceuticals of China giving a good indication of the player's confidence, vision, awareness, mental toughness and focus despite the off the field uncertainties - it looks to be good season in store for the Blues!

In truth, it would be difficult to imagine a Chelsea midfield without Lampard. He is probably characterized most by his combative style in defence-mode, his energetic, surging runs forward and sweeping cross-field passes to our wide men in linking-mode, and then his pile-drivers from outside the box as well as his well-timed, astutely-read, late runs into the box to finish off chances in attacking-mode. And if that doesn’t win your Chelsea hearts, then his passionate smooch of the Chelsea badge as he races to the Chelsea fans every time he scores will do it.