Five years of working together do not simply disappear, particularly when you are captain of one of Europe’s biggest clubs and your manager is one of the most charismatic figures in football history. José Mourinho was always going to leave a mark on Frank Lampard, both professionally and personally. Their relationship goes beyond memories of those seasons at Stamford Bridge. Lampard has confirmed that the two are still in touch, and that he recently turned to Mourinho for his opinion on a player during the latest summer transfer window. Mourinho may have been presented to the press yesterday as Real Madrid’s new manager, but he still found time to give Lampard a detailed assessment of the player in question. Years after their time together in London, the connection remains.
“José is always there. A few days ago I texted him to ask about another player, who isn’t at Real Madrid but who he had worked with before. He’s always available,” Lampard told talkSPORT. “Sometimes it takes him a couple of days to get back to me because I know he’s a very busy man. But he came back with a really, really detailed analysis of a player we were looking at.” Mourinho’s influence remains part of Lampard’s life as a manager. The former England midfielder spent the most important years of his playing career under the Portuguese at Chelsea, and still sees him as a major reference point. Lampard is determined to develop an identity of his own in management, but what he learned from his former boss continues to shape the way he handles a dressing room, communicates with players and deals with whatever comes his way.
“I obviously watched the documentary about him and it was great to relive those memories, especially the first part, because it was about the Chelsea story and brought so many great things back. I already knew how much I cared about José, but seeing it all again was fantastic. I’ve worked with a lot of great managers, but he was the one who had the biggest impact on my career, particularly because of the belief he showed in me when he arrived.” Lampard, though, has no interest in becoming a version of his former manager. “I think a lot of managers have tried, in some way, to imitate José. I couldn’t and wouldn’t do that because I don’t have his characteristics. I have my own.” After 18 months in charge of Coventry City, culminating in promotion to the Premier League last season, Lampard feels he has grown considerably from his earlier spells at Derby County, Chelsea and Everton. One area in particular is the mental side of the job: learning how to deal with a profession built on emotional extremes, from the rush of a big win to the difficulty of absorbing a defeat.
His aim is not to become a “tribute” to the great managers he has worked with, but to focus on what his own team needs, while looking after himself through what promises to be a demanding season. “I’m trying to be a manager in my own way. Probably the biggest thing I’ve learned is finding the right balance: you can’t win every game. You’re going to be tested in so many ways. You can’t expect perfection every day. You have to find the right balance on and off the pitch and prioritise the things that really matter. I hope these 18 months at Coventry have shown that I’ve improved in that area too.” For Lampard, that balance also makes the job easier to live with. “Actually, finding that balance makes my life simpler. You need time to rest. It’s a stressful job and it tests you, but when you do it you have to understand that it is part of the job.”