Frank Lampard has made a return to Chelsea as caretaker manager until the end of the season. The 44-year-old has been appointed following the sacking of Graham Potter on Sunday. Lampard’s first match in charge will be against Wolves on Saturday, before Chelsea travel to Spain for the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid next Wednesday. Chelsea’s recruitment team have already begun their search for a permanent manager, having spoken to Julian Nagelsmann and Luis Enrique this week.
Despite being appointed as caretaker manager, Lampard has not ruled out the possibility of staying on as Chelsea’s permanent manager. However, he has stressed that his focus is on ending the season on a high and doing the best possible job in his current role. When asked if he has been told that his appointment is strictly until the end of the season, Lampard replied: “No, but I think the role and explanation of my role speaks for itself and the period I’m here for. On that term, I’m not getting anywhere ahead of myself. I want to do the best possible role in a way that I can impact in this period. Then after that, we’ll see what happens.”
Lampard also dismissed comparisons with Roberto Di Matteo, who became Chelsea’s caretaker manager in March 2012 and went on to be appointed permanently after guiding the team to victory in the Champions League just two months later. Lampard said: “I don’t think it’s worth speaking about past moments. Roberto did an incredible job and that’s a different part of Chelsea’s history. For me, in simple terms it won’t be my decision as such, so again I don’t want to jump forward to that.”
Despite being aware that he will be asked about his future at Chelsea, Lampard is focused on the job at hand and is excited to work with the talented squad at Stamford Bridge. He said: “I’m very excited to do that along with the staff that I will be working with and the players I will be working with. I was at the game on Tuesday night, I know there’s a lot of talent in this squad, not just the players who played on Tuesday, but generally I’m excited to work with that talent and help them. And that’s why I’m here.”
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