They are three of the finest midfielders of their generation as well as three of the best England has ever produced. So there seems something poetic about Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and Paul Scholes all entering management in the same season.
Their careers on the field were intertwined, with a succession of Three Lions managers ironically unable to fit three sublime players into their midfield – eventually leading to Scholes’ premature retirement from international football in 2004.
Even with dynamic duo Lampard – the Premier League’s highest-scoring midfielder of all time with 177 goals (he is fourth overall) – and Gerrard (18th highest with 120) driving them on from midfield, supremely talented England teams fell constantly short of emulating the heroes of 1966 by failing at one at major tournament after the other.
Domestically, they both collected silverware with almost effortless ease. Lampard won three Premier League titles, four FA Cups, the Champions League, Europa League and two League Cups in a glorious 13 years career at Chelsea. Gerrard, meanwhile, was a force of nature as he lifted the Champions League and Europa League trophies as well as two FA Cups and three League Cups during a 17-year stint with boyhood club Liverpool.
And having shared the field together on numerous occasions, both as friend and foe, now they are embarking on the long and arduous road to managerial success together – Lampard at Derby County and Gerrard at Scottish giants Rangers.
Lampard and Gerrard played alongside each other for England and are now managing together, at Derby and Rangers respectively.
They are both enjoying early success and earning praise too. Lampard’s Rams are hoping to raid the Championship play-offs and roar into the Premier League – they are a place and two points adrift of sixth-placed Bristol City.
Gerrard, meanwhile, is orchestrating something of a revolution at Rangers. They are second, eight points adrift of the side across the city, and if they stay there, would achieve their highest top-flight finish since the infamous 2011/12 campaign when they finished runners-up but were relegated due to financial irregularities.
The greatest of enemies during their days playing for rival clubs, Lampard revealed he and Gerrard are now on friendlier terms and talk regularly as friends and fellow managers.
“We do keep in contact this season, whenever he has a good result I’ll always send him a message and vice versa,” Lampard said, speaking exclusively to Sport360 thanks to his partnership with nanoM – a state-of-the-art health assessment clinic located at the Golden Mile Galleria on Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah.
“We were at the Champions League final together last year, Stevie was just about to take the Rangers job and this was coming up as an opportunity for me so we spoke a lot about it. We were both pretty clear we wanted to manage, even when we were working together in the media.
“It’s good to see him going so well there with such a big club. I know now from being here that every job is difficult in its own merits and I think he’s done a really good job. I’m sure with his personality and knowledge and how he is, Steven’s going to make a success of himself.”
36 - Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard have combined for more Premier League goals than any other duo in the competition's history (36 goals). Swooning. #Valentines pic.twitter.com/qpPcfDrZVg
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) 14 February 2019
Lampard enjoyed the bulk of his success with the Blues under Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti. And while he revealed he could call on his old bosses for advice, he prefers to call on his own experiences under them as a player at Stamford Bridge.
“I spoke with Harry (Redknapp, his former boss at West Ham and also his uncle). It was nice to speak to him and we speak throughout the season,” said the 40-year-old Lampard.
“I didn’t really speak to any other managers, but I can always tap into Jose and Ancelotti. When you worked under them they were always pretty open and there to help.
“I always have that backdrop but I don’t go and actively call them, I just try and call on the experiences I had with them as a player, pick out and remember the bits I think were good and incorporate them into how I want to be as a manager.”
He has tapped into his old side for something though, acquiring promising midfielder Mason Mount and defender Fikayo Tomori on loan as he plots a course to the Premier League.
One Chelsea starlet in the headlines at the moment is livewire winger Callum Hudson-Odoi – who is said to be frustrated by a lack of opportunities under manager Maurizio Sarri and is courting attention from German giants Bayern Munich.
John Terry was the last player from Chelsea’s academy to fully establish himself in the first-team fold. To put Hudson-Odoi’s apparent frustration into context, Andreas Christensen became the first academy player since Terry to reach 50 senior appearances in the 5-0 thrashing of Huddersfield at the beginning of the month.
Lampard has led Derby to edge of the Championship play-offs as the Rams eye a Premier League return in his first season in charge.
Lampard sympathises with the 18-year-old’s predicament but would like to see him stay.
“He obviously wants to play football and Chelsea have competition in those areas and are chasing success so it’s the manager’s choice who he picks,” revealed Lampard, who plundered a mammoth 211 goals for Chelsea in 648 appearances.
“Callum is a hungry young player and very talented. He needs to work hard and show every single day in training what he can do, to get himself into the team at Chelsea.
“With my Chelsea hat on, I’d like to see him stay there and develop into the fantastic player I think he can be, but that’s an individual choice.”
Pressed on why he feels it has been so hard for a hoard of young proteges to push their way into the senior team, Lampard added: “Because Chelsea have a fantastic squad. It’s a very similar situation at Man City where the need and pressure for success is so high.
“It’s not an easy balance. It’s very easy to look at it and make judgements from afar, but it would be great to see them get more minutes and develop as young players.”
One player Hudson-Odoi might well be looking to as an inspiration is fellow England starlet Jadon Sancho, who took the decision to leave City and England, signing with Bundesliga behemoths Borussia Dortmund in the summer of 2017.
Sancho, 18, hasn’t looked back and is fully establishing himself as one of the top young talents in Europe this season, netting eight goals and 10 assists in 32 games in all competitions.
He has earned international recognition too, playing three times for England. And while the immediate need for success at club level often stifles the progress of young talent, Gareth Southgate’s approach at England of putting his faith in youth – they had the second youngest squad at last summer’s World Cup – is paying dividends for the national team.
“I think young players can be a breath of fresh air when they come through with the energy and quality,” added Lampard, a winner of 106 England caps, joint seventh alongside Sir Bobby Charlton.
“Trent (Alexander-Arnold) in the Liverpool side at his age is an incredible achievement. Sancho has taken the leap to go abroad but is performing well.
“We have a very good crop of young players and I think they’ll only improve. They have a fantastic mentor in terms of manager so hopefully the future’s bright.”
And so the conversation turns back to Lampard and Gerrard, and how so much talent – the pair also played with the likes of Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, Terry and Scholes among a glittering list of others – failed to win on the big stage.
Lampard would love Hudson-Odoi to fulfill his promise at Chelsea.
But Lampard feels it’s unfair to lay the blame solely at the door of his generation.
“I think there are lots of variables and reasons,” said a player who featured for England at Euro 2004 and three World Cups.
“When you look back, you wish we could have won one or more tournaments. We had the individual quality to the degree I don’t think we maximised our potential , if we’re honest. I’ve said that in the past.
“But England haven’t won a major tournament since 1966, it’s a long time. It’s certainly not just a small generation (that’s failed), it’s lots of generations.
“That’s the positive thing about the group coming through now. We’ve got a good group being coached well at school level and showing really good talent at a young age. If we have a good batch coming through that have played together at the youth levels, hopefully they can bring through success in five or 10 years’ time.”
