‘We can be a great story’ – Frank Lampard on lessons from Chelsea and Everton, embracing underdog status and Coventry’s Premier League return

As the question ends, Frank Lampard pauses for half a second and smiles. “That’s a good question,” he says, because it is one he has considered often lately. Coventry City are now on the verge of returning to the Premier League, taking Lampard back to the top flight as a manager. It leaves him with plenty to prepare for – and just enough time to reflect on the unlikely path that brought him here.

How did a player synonymous with Premier League greatness end up leading a club back to the top flight after 25 years away? The answer, ultimately, comes down to lessons. Lampard and Coventry have learned plenty from their respective journeys, and both know there are more to come as they begin their next chapter together.

Coventry City’s return is a long-awaited one. Lampard’s less so. Still, it’s been three years since his nightmare 11-game stint as Chelsea’s caretaker manager. So much has changed in those three years, and Lampard’s answer to the question is that he has, too.

So what’s different now?

“Many things,” Lampard tells GOAL with a smile. “I’ve gone into difficult jobs with a lot of high expectations and pressures, and I feel probably my main improvement myself has just been handling all that stuff and getting more balanced about it.

“You have to be ready for it. In the difficult times after a defeat, you have to be one that stays calm. When we’re winning, and we were winning a lot last year, I’m the one that’s getting least excited, in a way, to keep doing my job properly.”

Experience has taught Lampard not to ride those emotional swings quite so sharply.

“I’m probably better at doing that than I was seven years ago, because, when you’re a young manager, every win feels amazing and every defeat is like the end of the world. I think if you can get that bit right, you give off a nice feeling of calmness to the players and they trust that you’re the boss and you have it, that you’re the first one that can carry those things.”

Lampard will have a lot to carry this season. History isn’t kind to promoted clubs. Over the past 10 Premier League seasons, 16 of 30 have gone straight back down. Twice in the past three seasons, all three promoted sides have been relegated at the first time of asking.

Lampard knows how unforgiving that transition can be. For much of his playing career, he was on the other side, part of the favorite expected to punish teams still finding their feet in the top flight.

So what is it like being on this side now? How does it feel to be an underdog? How does one of the Premier League’s all-time great winners approach a season in which victories will be harder to come by?

“You talk about stories. Underdog stories are always great stories,” he says. “I think the stories of recent Premier League teams, a lot of teams go up and come back down and they try again.

“We haven’t got so much Premier League experience. We’ve come in a bit cold on that front, so if we can show and believe in ourselves and play to the level that I and we think we can, I think we can be a great story by just taking on this challenge with a lot of belief.”

The longer Lampard has spent at Coventry, the more he has come to appreciate the weight of that story.

“I’ve learned a lot about Coventry and the size of the club, the fan base, the story of 25 years out of the league. It’s kind of added to the strength of what the story’s been.”

Few could have imagined Lampard and Coventry’s stories colliding. When they did, it worked out as well as either side could have imagined. In Coventry, Lampard found a club willing to let him build on the lessons he’s learned from his prior stops and, more importantly, to build something better. In Lampard, Coventry found a manager with the gravitas and ability to get the club somewhere that it hasn’t been in two and a half decades. If the story ended with promotion, it would be the happiest of endings.

The story, though, is just beginning. Promotion closed one chapter, but the Premier League immediately changed the terms of the challenge. In some ways, Lampard and Coventry have been preparing for this journey, but the truth is that there’s nothing that can prepare a team for the challenges of the Premier League.

“It felt surreal for a little bit when we got up,” Lampard says with a smile, “and now it feels very real.”