Pat Nevin believes that the system at Chelsea that engineered the sacking of Frank Lampard is a winning one – but is fraught with problems.
Lampard was sacked this morning from the club where he spent his best playing years, with Thomas Tuchel looking set to replace him at Stamford Bridge.
Nevin believes that the executive system at Chelsea generally delivers trophies, but also results in wastes of both money and footballing talent.
Lampard gone
“If you’re a Chelsea fan and you’re not saddened, you’re not a Chelsea fan – simple as that,” said Nevin.
“I have always said that it is a system that works, it is a methodology that works – Real Madrid have done it for many years.
“But – and this is a massive but – it is one expensive way to do it, and it will lead to massive mistakes.
“Thomas Tuchel is not going to come in and build the young players up, why would he do that? There is no reason to do that.
“You have got to get the players on the pitch. There are two down sides to that. Those kids don’t develop as quickly, and might not develop as they should have done.
“The second is that you miss good young players, such as De Bruyne and Salah.
“I just hope that the football club understand that.”
Tuchel to Chelsea
Tuchel has had issues with executives at both of his last jobs, PSG and Borussia Dortmund respectively.
He doesn’t, however, think that the relationship between manager and owner is doomed to failure.
“It does sound a wee bit like a marriage made in hell,” Nevin joked.
“But that doesn’t mean it won’t work. I thought that Mourinho going to Spurs was going to be a marriage made in hell – there are two personalities [in Mourinho and Daniel Levy] that are going to absolutely explode on each other one day!
“But in Spurs’ case, maybe they just hope that it happens three or four years down the line. At Chelsea, maybe they think that it is going to be in 18 months and they are ok with it.“
Steve Clarke
Nevin gave his ideas of left-field managers that might have done a good job for Chelsea in Tuchel’s place.
“Stevie Clarke is currently the Scotland manager, he just does everything quietly. If you stuck him in with that group of players, people might not think he’s a big enough name.
“Have a look through who that guy has worked with over the years, and who he has coached – he got the best out of them even before he got the number one job at a number of places.
“There was lots of talk of Brendan Rodgers being the manager – I expect he will be one day.
“There are plenty of managers out there.”
One that has fallen away, under the circumstances, is John Terry.
“They have tried the rookie manager, it may be that John Terry thinks ‘I’m going to do it the other way, the Steven Gerrard kind of way.’”
Lampard sacked by Chelsea after 18 months
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