Football Daily - In Focus with Frank Lampard and Dion Dublin

Episode Date: March 8, 2025

Dion Dublin visits Coventry City's training ground to speak with manager Frank Lampard.The Sky Blues find themselves 5th in the Championship, with eight wins in their last nine games, having been 17th in the table when Lampard took charge. He talks about benefiting from 18 months out of management, his previous jobs, his time at Coventry so far and ambitions for the final 11 games of the season.

BBC Sounds music radio podcast. The Football Daily podcast on BBC Sounds. Hello, Dion Dublin here. Welcome to another special In Focus on the Football Daily. In this episode I'll be speaking to Chelsea and England legend Mr Frank Lampard who will be joining me here at Coventry City's training ground and we'll be chatting all things his career, management and the playoffs and it looks like he's on the way. Lamps good to see you. Thanks for your time today mate first and foremost. See you on

the training ground mate with your um... clip book. Yeah yeah yeah. What's on that? The master plan. Well the master plan's working but listen, we'll come to that. Let's take you back to your debut, your very first professional debut. Do you know when it was, do you know who was against it? Coventry. Gordon Strachan came on with me at the same time. But he was at Coventry and I was at West Ham. You weren't playing that game yet? I actually played.

You were playing? I forgot on you. I should know that. I don't playing that game here? I actually played. You were playing? I actually scored. I should know that. I don't know that. I just know because when I got the job here, the image came out and I obviously remember it. It's a massive moment for me as a debut, as a young West Ham fan, managed to get on the team and I remember Harry stood there arm in arm with me and Gordon Strachan, it was at the end of his career, I was at the start. So yeah, funny way of fate coming back round. It's amazing that you, that two players, like

you say, one at the start, one at the end with Gordon Strachan, on the touchline and he shook your hand and he wished you all the best, which I thought was amazing. And two quality players that lasted a long time in the game, do you know what I mean? Yeah. He had a long career, you had a long career. I remember winning the Football Writers Award in 2005 or 2006 or something like that and Gordon spoke actually, he stood up and sort of intro'd me on the evening. It was very nice, very glowing at the time and a lot of respect for him. Great bloke, isn't he?

Yeah, yeah, a proper football man, you know. Yeah, it was a special moment coming on in that. When I look back, you don't realise when you're 17, you're just wide-eyed walking onto a pitch you look back at that moment and that now I know about his career and what he did and everything. So you started in 1996 I was, and then we forward a long way to where we are now but you had a little bit of a time out as well about 18 months out. During the 18 months what was the the 18 months, what

was the thought process? Were you thinking, I've got to get back in all, I want to learn more or did you go and speak to any managers? What was going on? Yeah, I mean, I always want to learn more and I've realised from now doing this for what, five or six years now, that when you're working, you want to learn more every day and you do because this game gives you challenges every day and you learn off 100 things in a day selection issues tactical things people management So but when you're in the bubble we can become very intense sometimes when you're out of the game You can take a different view and watch more football

I watched a lot of games when I'm out of the game and I'm What's happening with Bournemouth? Why they winning? What they doing off the ball? What's what's and I doing it? I said this the other day and I'm really interested in those things so you have to keep moving forward. So I did a lot of that, I did some good meetings with different managers and some dinners with Thomas Frank, Gareth Southgate at the time, Roy Hodgson, there's a little bit of a management community that look after each other and I love tapping into the experiences of other managers that have been there, done it or different situations.

Thomas invited me to Brentford's training ground and those things are great. They could just sort of influence you a bit. You try and keep your way of thinking but we will all evolve from my first day at Derby as a coach to now and I think listening to people of experience is one of the best ways. I try and immerse myself in that. So in those 18 months I rested, spent time with the family, that's all great. And I was ready to go, but I was just trying to always sort of see how can I be better for the next time.

So during that time then, the 18 months, you had a chance to speak to some experienced, new managers, some different managers, I would imagine as well. Did you take any bits and bobs that you're sort're using right now to make you better? You've got your own way of doing things, obviously, but do you take and use now things from other managers?

Yeah, I think the greatest thing, having said what I've just said, the greatest thing in football when you're managing, I think, is your experience as you learn. And you look back at times at Derby, Chelsea, Everton, and go, I could have done that, that was a problem, I could have done better with that.. Oh no, I've got that right. And you just put that all together. So I think they're always the greatest learnings, what you actually experience yourself. But yeah, from speaking to people like Thomas Frank,

who's a really progressive, open manager, which I really appreciate. Yeah, it was so, I would just everything. It was like, what's your working week like? I always find the great managers, and there's a reason why they're great, is because they ask you questions, they're not just coming and going, this is what I do, look at this amazing thing. I've been in with Pep who's

pretty much the greatest, one of the greatest of all time and he's asking me, so what happened to Everton, how did you get the balance of the team? He's asking all these questions, I was like I'm here to ask you questions surely. Which is great isn't it, it just shows that. I try to be that person, I try to, I enjoy management, I enjoyed coaching, it was my first love. And I've also learned when I first walked into Derby, I thought I could go and be a coach. And then I realised I had to be a manager. And people have this thing now of manager or head coach. And now people have tried to make the title of head coach be my role. But in reality, the training ground, you're the one that is at the forefront

of so many things. You say, oh, day off, training time, schedule, you know, lots of people to help you with those things. But you do have that responsibility and I like that because you understand that as much as football is tactics and team selection, it's also people and feeling and the building and positivity and all those things. Have you changed as a manager? Not so much your philosophy, just as a man have you changed? Yeah, I think so. One of my biggest learnings of being out of game, and I say it every time, and Christine

always laughs at me because I say that next time I'm going to be more relaxed and she's like, just wait, just wait, because it's not going to happen. Until you're back in it again. And then I'm back in and it's like, oh, I'm home and I'm right, I'm doing training the next time and I'm explaining to her my challenges, what's happening tomorrow. So I'm better at the balance in it. And then I'm back in and it's like, oh, I'm home and I'm like, I'm doing training the next time and we're explaining to him my challenges, what's happening tomorrow. So I'm better at the balance of it. I am, I feel like I've got better. I think as a young manager, every win and every defeat is like there or there. And you're so pushing. You want to show everyone, I'm a good coach, we're a good manager, you know, my team gets results.

The more you're in it, you always understand a bit of a bit. I think you become a little bit more level headed. I feel that that and when I've spoken to those managers that have got great longevity of the Hodgson, Harry Redknapp, I could obviously speak to Harry, you feel a different perspective from managers that have been through 700 games doing this job. If you go up and down all the time, if you put so much pressure on yourself, then I think your own energies can be compromised. So I try and be more level-headed and go, OK, just keep working, keep working, things will come right if you keep doing the right thing.

When you go into Chelsea or Everton or Derby, wherever it may be where you've managed, when you walk into that football club, I know they're all in different circumstances, different stature of football clubs, but is there always a different feeling when you go in? Because there's got to be, isn't there? Absolutely. You're in a job for a reason. The manager may have left, generally maybe because the results are not so good, but sometimes Gary Rowan had had a decent season, had reached the play-offs. So there are different things. I think the thing you try to learn is to try and be as quick as you can in picking up the important things.

At Derby, because we were in off-season, Vidra had been a top scorer the year before he left. The team at that point had played more of a counter-attacking style. Me as a young coach, I wanted to be high-pressing. I wanted to play through lines. How can we do that? So recruitment became big. The young loan players we got that year added this energy to a group that had good experience. So we found a good mix. So a good balance. We found a good balance.

Not to say we fell on it, because that makes it look like by chance, but we injected energy in legs and some young quality. We found a really good balance that year. And when I went into Chelsea, it's obviously a different story. Transfer ban, Hazards left. The kids were there for me in the academy. And that, again, we found a good balance. And I think we had good success, obviously, in year one.

Everton was firefight. You know, you've got to stay up. You know, they're all great challenges. I've had a lot of challenges, and all managers do. But you come through them hopefully stronger. You learn more about challenges, you learn more about yourself and you learn about hopefully trying to, in management, prioritise what are the things we need to hit now. And at Chelsea it would have been different to what it was

at Everton because it's mid-season and the big issue is confidence. Can we breathe confidence into this club? So yeah, whether I had success or not that's been explained in what I went into. But it's made you a better manager, a better person, a better understanding of the game as well. So when you went in at Chelsea, obviously that is your club, it always will be your club. You're now in the technical area and you can't affect the game. That's what you've done all your career for, Chelsea is affect the football match by scoring or assisting or doing something and now you can't. Was that very difficult not thinking just pass me boots. Yeah I definitely want my legs were telling me that my brain I knew by then. I guess you learn quickly in management that your affect is through the week

and what you can do on match day less so of course subs you know the tactical set but a lot of the work is done through the week I saw Chaby Alonso spoke about it last season I read a quote from him and all that work you do for the week is for the Saturday and then come to Saturday you can affect game but you can affect it less so I quickly come to terms with that I felt a great pride and honor of being on the line at Chelsea because I was I think as a player I was always pretty I knew what my job was I was pretty I would say I was a pretty low maintenance player. I knew my job, I respected my manager, I hardly knocked on the office in my career, not many times.

Just got on with your job? Just got on with it and to then be on the other side is somewhat surreal, there's no doubt but I went back, I went to Chelsea even after just one year of management, it was very unusual to get the Chelsea job then and I understood the circumstances, the ban, my playing career, all those things aligned for me slightly. But I had a real sense of confidence that I could do it. And that's not every day that makes me sound like I'm a machine, I'm not. Everyone has days where you kind of go, oof.

You've got to back yourself, haven't you? I did back myself, because I think players have to feel that. Modern players, if you give off a sense of, I'm not sure what I'm doing here, is this right for me? They jump all over that. I was one. No, that's true. As footballers, we can sense the weakness, can't you? Whether it's a manager, a coach or a player, you can target that. It's a weakness within their group. I think there's a real balance in managing. This is how I feel, you must have a sense

of authority. Everyone's leading off you, but there's nothing wrong with being able to engage your players and ask their opinions and give them a bit of that. So I've always tried to do that. I never feel like I'm a dictator at a football club because I think you have to build personal relationships. There's nothing better for me sometimes than going to an individual player and going, what do you think, what does that mean for you when we want to play like this? You know, midfield player, you're happy to press that high? All those things are good because you engage players,

then they feel like they're in it with you in terms of the performance and the results, which are all important. sound. as a manager then. To the biggest debates, he's a free agent at the end of the year, clubs can contact him, who knows what's arrived in the inbox. The Premier League review only on The Football Daily. Listen on BBC Sounds. The Football Daily podcast on BBC Sounds. You came here when Coventry were 17th to offer relegation, you're now fifth, great chance of staying where you are or even doing better. How have you done it? I think some of the jobs I've gone into, as a manager you look at what are the expectations of this club and what do I feel like I can deliver. And when I came into the squad here I thought that we could improve. It was a difficult moment for whatever reason but when you get in you try and really analyse quickly the problems that we were conceding too many goals and we analysed that in terms of

the video and with the players. We weren't compact enough, we weren't aggressive enough in our opinion for whatever reason. So we tried to really prioritise our off the ball work and the players to be fair, you asked me how we've done it, the players have done it because they're bought into everything that we tried to say. I have to say this group of players, the humility, the application of them is amazing. As a group, absolutely amazing. They're a pleasure to come in and work with because whenever you say something, run through there and run through there, it's like no problem. As a group, it's

really, really impressive. So when you've got that, you've got a chance to affect things quickly. And we've had challenges, had some injuries, had to change shape, be adaptable. That's a challenge for me. It's a challenge for the players because you're trying to get the message across and go, come on, let's move forward. And we've done that. So we've changed shape at different times. Now we're getting players fit.

So now we've got this more competitive nature to the squad where we can make changes in game. Players have got to play well to stay in the team. So some things have come together nicely. I'm under no illusions. It's a lovely period of time because we're winning games. The next challenge is the bigger one. It's like we've got the end of the season, we've got the run in here now. The minute, you know football as well as I do, the minute you go, we've cracked it. This game, this championship will smack you in the face.

There's no doubt. So I've got to be the first one to see that and keep pushing. And to be fair, you're right about training today, particularly it was a really driven day of like, we want to be this, we want to be intense. This has got to be a team with speed and aggression. And we're not there yet. There's so much more we can do,

but the players are doing everything. Can the players handle all the pressure? Of being there to be knocked off. Yeah. And it's down to you to instil that I would imagine. Yeah it is and it's down for me to be on every little feeling because an example of we played Oxford and we won the game and we won it with some real moments of quality. I didn't like bits of the game you know and they can get lost. Even though you want it, you weren't happy with it. Yeah, and I wasn't so happy with some of our off the ball work, we were not as aggressive

as we have been, we're not as fluid, our balance in possession at times, and I know what can happen sometimes, you can get in a good place and you can let it go, and we weren't lucky, we deserved to win the game, but knowing the standards, we're starting to settle. And it's not the worst thing, especially when you come out of a win, you go, okay, we've got to correct that lads because if that carries on, you know, somebody's going to hit us soon. So I think trying to find that it's a balance of, okay, can we own this now and feel like we're a top five team in the league? Because that's a good thing. When you're confident, why not tap into that? But also be careful, to be a top team it means that we've got to make sure we're guarding against any form of complacency, any form of training.

Oh it's easy Osy now, can we have another day off gaffer? Those things, I'm like, that's the balance of strike. And as I say again, the lads are great, but my role specifically is to make sure that we keep going. Do you still speak to certain managers now? Do you ever get managers calling you up saying, what happened today or well done today? No, not so much.

I mean, come back to Uncle Harry, he's the best support ever. Harry brings me when I'm on the M40 after a game, win or lose, particularly if we win, he's like, I was following every bit of it. Me and Sandra indoors, you're on the phone and then they came up and then they scored.

So I appreciate that. And it's always a wise word from him at the end of those things. But it's more support, not so much if I have a manager. I think when you get in the zone everyone's doing their jobs. The beauty of the championship is we still have the tradition of coming in and having a glass of wine or a beer. So with Garrow Rowan. Does that still happen? Yeah, it happens with most managers. I've got a say one or two not, but that's fine. Some of that's cultural I think as well, and the league's evolving for that, but a lot of managers are coming out and they're great moments because you go, well, you know, what do you think? Him?

What's that? What have you got coming up? They're great ways because we've all got these different challenges and there's some really, really good, not just young coaches, coaches in this league. How do you manage the change in the professional footballer? Because you know I'm a lot older than you are, you know but we're both retired footballers and we know what it was like in order to to be accepted and what it was like wow we're men don't show you hurt all that kind of stuff. How do you find that? Because obviously you'll still have that player mentality somewhere. I cannot assume a player is going to think how I thought 25 years ago.

Probably won't. So it's trying to learn and always think, what's the best... Can I support the player? And if I need to push them, what's the best way to push them? You know, to get the most out of them. You'll succeed and fail. Because when players are not always playing, and everybody says, well, you're not playing,

you've got to communicate to the players. Sometimes there's not many nice things to say when they're not playing. Sometimes it's actions, you know, you've got to get back to getting the team. Otherwise you'd be sitting every week going, you're not playing again. In the end they'll sort of take that,

your arms are showing and go. So sometimes it's about, you know, the environment you create and through staff, it's like, you know, you're constantly trying to keep a level. You're trying to see a moment of a player's a bit down and not right, and the old day would have been, get on with it, we lived that.

But now it's almost like, how can you give that duty of care across the board, it looks different all the time. So the question is, is it harder than playing or is it easier than playing right now in management? It's harder, it's much harder. Yeah, it's physically not. It's much harder. Is it? Yeah. It's physically not.

Yeah, of course. I can put my feet up much more. But the responsibility on your shoulders of the team, of everybody through the week, you know, it's harder up here, for sure. So you get two things from that. I think you get the beauty of wins feel better. I enjoy wins more,

because that responsibility is a bit more like, yes, you know what we're playing for the week, in the end it all comes off on Saturday for whatever reason, that's high, high. And then the responsibility when it goes the other way, should I have done that? Could I have done that? What did I get wrong there? Individually as a player, you can kind of, it's just you,

and you can be helped out by your team mate, and you go home and you whatever, you succeed. As a manager, the responsibility makes it harder. You realise quickly when you come to this side that the responsibilities that fall on your shoulders make it much, much harder. And you're getting that a little bit older, you're getting a little bit more consumed and tired at different times. You've got to keep yourself fresh. At 20 I'd play three games a week, stay in hotels three nights a week. Now I try and go, okay, I must keep my energy high because the building may go off that and so you're constantly thinking about all those things.

Good characters, got some good characters here, funny lads, really enjoying themselves. They really enjoy themselves, they're a relatively young group I think, we've got some experience in there, Grimesy came in who's really really experienced in this league, but we're pretty young, but I feel like they're developing all the time and they're great on the training pitch, they get on really well together. Never give me a problem in those terms and they're... Sometimes, you know. But no, they don't.

And I can be very sort of face to face with them. They're not, there's not, it's not, you know, people talk about modern day dressrooms, they can have little cliques and little, you know, this group here in the dressroom. I don't feel that with them and it's important we fight against that because it's the first step to a problem. But they manage themselves a lot here and I think that's one of our strengths in this winning run has been the collective spirit. And then you feel it sometimes when you score a last minute winner, which we've done a

couple of times. It's like, for me, those things, oh, you were lucky to go and score at Sheffield when you score a last-minute winner, which we've done a couple of times. It's like, for me those things, you were lucky to go and score at Sheffield Windsor in the last minute. No, no, that work is the group, collective group. Training ground. And then you get over the line. We've all seen the great teams do that over the years. Eleven games left in the season.

What changes anything? Do you change because of the position you are in the league? Do you change because of the personnel you're playing the league? Do you change because of the person you're playing at the time in the season? I think we have to feed off our position in a positive way. We're now in a much more positive challenge from being 17th to 5th. Let's use that in a good way. But we have to be under no illusions. This league every week is a real challenge.

The games we've got with the teams are fighting relegation, we've got a run coming up in the next games where we'll play Sunderland, we'll play Sheffield United away, we'll have Burnley come to our place, really tough game. So our running is a challenge, so is everybody's in this league, but we absolutely have to go game by game, how can we improve it. Back ourselves a bit now, we know we can compete, we've shown that in the last period, but we cannot take our foot off the pedal in terms of our work and our prep and everything that we do, so I'm looking forward to it. I'm really interested in looking forward to can we keep this form of momentum, because we'll take some hits

in those 11 games. We've had a really good run, it won't look that way all the time, I'm a realist, I understand it. Can we bounce back from those quickly, because that'll be the test of what we are. I'd love to see Coventry back in the Premier League, please. You work at a football club and you've obviously got a big connection with Coventry, but the amount of people that come up to me, I was out at the event the other night, Coventry fans come in and we're getting messages from them, it's nice you're a Coventry fan. So we are the size of a club that I think we know you're a Coventry fan. And so we are the size of a club that I think,

if I could be part of the group that got us there, and there's a long way to make the playoffs, to get through the playoffs, to get to the final. But if we can do that for this, it'd be huge for this city, it'd be amazing. Absolutely. We're going the right way, pal, aren't you? Yeah, well.

And you seem to be enjoying it, because you're smiling on the training ground, you're smiling and having a laugh with the boys, but still getting your points across, so you're enjoying your job. I try to do that, because I can have a serious face, I can have a frown, I know that, I'm thinking too much, my wife tells me that, stop frowning, I know, so I try to enjoy it because you know we're here, I'm fortunate to be working in this great club with

players and trying to do this job, you know, there could be many many worse things, I'm privileged to do it, so I try to. I think if you enjoy it, be positive, then there's a better chance of good things coming. Brilliant. Listen, good luck mate. I hope you do it. I really do. Thanks very much. Cheers. Thanks a lot.