Previously out of work Frank Lampard is back at Chelsea for the interim
Lampard #Lampard
Chelsea FC have literally been the definition of average in the Premier League this season. For a club that was crowned European champions less than two years ago, being considered average at anything might as well be worse than relegation. The Blues have close to the same number of wins, draws and losses in league play this campaign, with a tie this weekend against Wolves giving them a 10-9-10 current record. Somehow that same team is in the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League next week too, which should state Chelsea is anything but average. What a weird season for a group of West London weirdos.
And to make things weirder the team brought back Frank Lampard as caretaker manager for the rest of the season, about two years after the Blues legend was fired from patrolling the touchline at Stamford Bridge for not being good at his job. And Everton felt similarly and fired him in January. The guy that replaced Lampard, Thomas Tuchel, led the team to the Champions League crown less than four months after taking the helm. Tuchel was fired last September and replaced by Graham Potter, who was always a terrible hire and was sacked himself last Sunday. Welcome back Lampard! It’s the cirrrrrrrrrcle of liffffffeeeeeeeeee!!!!!
What a way for Todd Boehly and the rest of his ownership group to show the rest of this season doesn’t matter. The chase to get any spot in Europe is secondary. Just don’t get embarrassed the rest of the year. The Blues only chance to not only singularly play in England (or I guess maybe all of the glorious United Kingdom) next season, is to be the worst team to ever win the UCL. And I’m not sure it’s even close to who would be that second-place option. The knockout-round style nature of the Champions League usually takes care of those weak links by the quarterfinals. But not Chelsea and whatever EPL magic caused it to get past a great Borussia Dortmund team in the Round of 16.
Chelsea no doubt has several world-class players. When you can’t find room for consistent playing time for Christian Pulisic, that’s a great problem to have. And the Blues are still not consistently winning, like basically every other CFC team has for the last two decades. Chelsea’s worst season in that stretch was 2011-12, where it came down to beating Bayern Munich in the Champions League Final to play European football at all the following season due to a sixth-place finish in the league. And that game, in Munich no less, was won by Chelsea on PKs.
Actually, Chelsea’s never won a Champions League without firing their manager at some point within four months of lifting the trophy. Roberto Di Matteo had the title of caretaker for its win over the German giants. I guess history is and isn’t on your side. That’s the exact confidence you’d want! Good luck Lamps!
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