Bring In An Experience Manager for England - Frank Lampard

 

Frank Lampard has advised the FA to bring in an experienced manager to take the England job, and one that can mentor a young successor. The former Chelsea, Manchester City and England midfielder is one of a number of ex-players sought out by FA director of elite development Dan Ashworth after the country's dismal failure at Euro 2016.

Lampard, who currently plays for MLS side New York City, has said he was impressed with Ashworth and sees a more forward thinking Football Association that is determined to make the right decision and citing the German model, which reaped the 2014 World Cup after Jurgen Klinsmann nurtured and gave way to Joachim Low, Lampard suggested there are experienced, English managers that fit the bill.

He said “It's a tough one, In an ideal world I want an English man to run the team but it's not an ideal world so I want the best man. But the best managers are taken, and do they want the England job? I think we need to look at it from a different avenue; maybe look at having an older, more experienced head with a younger manager to try and blood the younger manager and a team together. When you look at English managers and the experienced set - there are experienced managers in the Premier League that have been there many years. I like the idea of that personally. The German model is great. They've had ex-players in there like Oliver Bierhoff before, who was the face of it, then Joachim Low working, Jurgen Klinsman before that, and I think we can get a bit more of a family. I think the FA needs to change itself. The FA needs to be a little more forward thinking. When I spoke to Dan Ashworth, to be fair, he was very forward thinking. We had a chat. Consultancy sounds kind of strong. It was a phone call, it was my opinions on what happened at the Euros, where I see it going, what my feelings are of when I played for England, and what I can see with the team now. I was honest, brutally honest. Sometimes you get knocked down when you speak about England because people say 'well you were rubbish, you never won nothing'. Fair enough, we didn't, but we had the experience of it and, after playing for my country and playing in the Champions League, you feel you have an opinion I think 'fair play to the FA' for opening that out, not just to myself but to Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard, Gary Lineker and Harry Redknapp. A smart man takes information from everywhere and then makes a decision - hopefully the right one.”

Lampard suggested someone like Redknapp, who was in contention for the job before Hodgson was appointed in 2012, would be the right man saying that “When I watched England at the Euros, everyone wanted to kill them afterwards, saying 'they were useless, they don't care', all that nonsense that usually comes out. I saw a lot of young players that do care, but I think they had the same wobbles as we had. There was a fear: 'Iceland are beating us 2-1, what's going to happen, can you imagine the fallout of this? Look at Harry, he's a motivator of people and I think that's what England need; someone to really bring out the best. He did it with Tottenham, when they had that great team a few years back. I certainly think Harry would be great in that role. Players love him and he was always forward thinking, so I'm sure he would embrace having a younger coach who can do some of the legwork on the training ground, and Harry oversee it, speak to the lads, get them confident, get them speaking to the press in the right way, not fearful of the press, not fearful of Spain, Italy, Portugal, or whoever you've got to play against.  I think we've got good young players and it's not like I'm digging out Roy Hodgson because I really like Roy, and the tournament went terribly for all of us, England fans included. It wasn't for the want of trying. So I think we've got to go again and benefit from these young players coming through.”