Chelsea legend Frank Lampard is aware that he will be under the spotlight after taking over the managerial duties at Championship club Derby County.
This is the 39-year-old’s first managerial stint, and he joins former England teammate and fierce Premier League rival Steven Gerrard in entering the world of coaching.
Both have entered the world of management at a relatively young age and this means that they will be subjected to a lot of questions and come under the spotlight regularly. Both will, however, be familiar with this sort of attention as it was, after all, what they faced during their playing careers. Lampard and Gerrard are regarded as two of the greatest English footballers of the modern generation and both were regularly hitting the headlines and receiving their fair share of praise and criticism during their playing days.
Lampard told the Derby Telegraph: “All eyes will be on us because of the careers we had, but because of the careers we had we are used to that. The expectation and the critique is the norm, and you kind of live off that.
“We are both hungry, we are both in similar boats. It is our first jobs in big clubs with big fanbases. I know I am going to give everything, and I have no doubt Steven will be giving it everything.”
Gerrard will be tasked with rebuilding Rangers into one of the giants of Scottish football. While the Gers have a rich history in terms of winning silverware, they have been a shadow of the team that they once were during recent years amidst financial problems and this has led to their fierce rivals Celtic being totally unchallenged in their domination over Scottish football. That could, however, change under the management of Gerrard at Rangers, especially as he is likely to attract the kind of talent at could help the Gers potentially launch a title push next season.
Lampard, meanwhile, will be tasked with guiding the Rams back to the Premier League for the first time since the 2007/08 season. While the club has regularly launched promotion pushes, they have never managed to achieve their objective over the years. Lampard has a great football brain but could he be the man to finally propel Derby to the Premier League? We will have to wait and see.
