FORMER CHELSEA BOSS Roberto Di Matteo has described Frank Lampard as a “great fit” to replace Maurizio Sarri in the Stamford Bridge dugout.
Sarri is reportedly close to leaving Chelsea after less than 12 months at the club amid suggestions he has been enticed back to Serie A by Italian champions Juventus.
Fan favourite Lampard has emerged as the frontrunner to succeed Sarri following a positive first campaign in management with Championship side Derby County, which ended with defeat to Aston Villa in the play-off final.
Some have questioned the 40-year-old’s lack of managerial experience, but Di Matteo believes his old team should take a gamble by appointing their former midfielder.
Speaking at the Costa Smeralda Invitational, Di Matteo said: “He’s definitely the right man. He’s got personality. I followed Derby last year and his team plays very good football. He’s got all the experience in the world.
“It’s a great fit. Whether it’s right now or not, only time can tell that. You can say it is too early but you have to give people a chance. Frank has got all the tools and I think he will make a lot of people happy if he was the next manager.”
Di Matteo, who lifted the Champions League and FA Cup with Chelsea in 2012 during his eight months in charge, is not surprised Sarri is moving on.
The ex-Napoli boss won the Europa League in his debut campaign with the London side and guided them to a third-place finish in the Premier League, but he never truly won over supporters with his style of play.
“That’s what the industry is like,” Di Matteo said. “People are always moving. I’m not entirely sure what the details are but it looks like he wants to go back to Italy and he has probably had a good offer from Juventus – one of the biggest clubs in Italy and Europe.
“But Chelsea will find a suitable manager to lead the team.”
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!
No, definitely not. Lampard has been doing well at Derby, but he has not achieved enough to warrant getting the Chelsea job. If Lampard happened to be some random manager who had never played for Chelsea, he would obviously not be in contention. Managerial appointments should be made on merit, not on sentimentality.
@Leinster: That is one of the problems. If you look at available managers out there, who deserves it on merit? Ideally Lampard would have gotten a few years experience first.
@Conor Flynn: That is true, there aren’t many top managers available at the moment. Laurent Blanc is probably the only manager without a job who I would consider, although I think he’d be a better appointment than Lampard. They could look to lure a manager with a job as well.
Couldn’t see the line being too long for that job considering they have the transfer ban and Chelsea’s policy on managers
@Yun Wyn: you can be sure lots of people will be interested. If the 15 years under the Russian are anything to go by the next manager will be very well paid, win trophies and get sacked . Going into any managers job you expect two of those three but Chelsea’s record in winning trophies is better than almost all others.
As a Chelsea fan, making Lampard the manager would be an extremely misguided and costly decision. He has a too little experience as a manager and if he gets sacked its unlikely he can ever return even when he will have the necessary training as a manager
I remember just over a year ago Shay Given was saying how difficult he was finding it trying to get a goalkeeping coaching job just before Derby gave him a chance! Could be sitting on the bench at the bridge in a few weeks!
The desperation levels are reaching new lows in Chelsea
@Martin Brennan:
What desperation levels?
They keep winning trophies year after year. Fans of lots of other clubs are just jealous that they can keep changing manager and keep winning trophies .