Just how GOOD was Frank Lampard Actually?

In 1995 Harry Redknapp would call his 17 year old nephew was an academy graduate at West Ham to play for the first team. As the kid took over a place in the team's midfield it started to be questioned whether or not he was only playing because he was the coach's nephew. The rumors got so bad that a fan would directly address the coach in a press conference to what Redknapp would reply that the kid played not because he was good but because he was the best During his first few years he would progressively become a bigger influence on the team. Despite initially even being loaned out to Swansea, by 1997 he would have his breakout season, scoring his first ever hat trick and playing over 40 matches for the club. This would help them finish 8th in the Premier League, a feat that would seem irrelevant as the next year they would manage a 5th place finish, the best in the club's history. This accomplishment would lead West Ham to take part in the Intertoto Cup, which worked almost as playoffs for the other European competitions. They would make it all the way to the final, where despite losing the first leg they would come back to win it, what was partially inspired by Frank Lampard who scored the second goal. This would lead them to the UEFA Cup where they would lose in the second round. The next few years would be problematic as Lampard would feel forced to leave as his uncle would be forced out of the club after failing to maintain it at the standard he had defined in the previous years. Just like this, Lampard would take on the move that would define the rest of his career. Chelsea would pay 11 million pounds to take the 23-year-old who would immediately fit into the first team. His first four seasons were played under Ranieri and he would fail to win any trophies whatsoever, his highest accomplishment during that time being a second place finish in the Premier League and reaching the semifinals of the Champions League. All this would be meaningless next to what would come as Ranieri was replaced by José Mourinho. During his next managerial change, Lampard would get his first opportunity to represent England in an international tournament, the Euro 2004. England would have an excellent tournament which was expected since they had one of their strongest ever generations. Unfortunately, by the semifinals they would succumb to Portugal who would manage to defeat them in penalties despite nearly doubling England's numbers in terms of shots taken and possession. Under Mourinho, Chelsea would nearly reach the new year undefeated in the league, only losing to Manchester City and to Porto in the Champions League. With Lampard maintaining his spot as one of the centre players of this Chelsea formation, he would easily be nominated to the Ballon d'Or for the first time in his career. The second half of the season would be equally impressive as Chelsea managed not to lose a single league match, finishing only one defeat away from equalling Arsenal's record set in the previous season where they managed to not lose a single match in the league. They would fail to the final of the Champions League as they were defeated by Liverpool where they would finish second only behind Ronaldinho, a feat only ever accomplished by two other English midfielders, David Beckham and Bobby Charlton. This year, Lampard managed 13 league goals as he finished the year as Chelsea's top scorer. The next year would be almost a weaker version of the 2004-05 season as Chelsea won the Premier League for the second consecutive time despite their performances being far less impressive and them being knocked out of the Champions League in the last 16. Despite this, that year, Lampard would be even more impressive with 16 league goals. His performances impressed Jose Mourinho so much that he would call him the best player in the world at the time and Lampard would win his second PFA player of the year. In the summer of 2006, he took part in his first World Cup and despite looking very promising as he led the team as top goal scorer in the qualifying matches, he would go the whole tournament without scoring as they would once again lose to Portugal on penalties. The next season would be the first time Lampard would take over the captain role as John Terry sustained a long-lasting back injury. This would be his last season under Jose Mourinho and Chelsea would finally fail to win the league and would get knocked out by Liverpool in the semi-finals of the Champions League once again despite winning both domestic cups that year. The next season would be a very disappointing one. Chelsea would start by losing the Community Shield and then finish second in the league once again losing the final of the Carling Cup as well as losing the final of the Champions League to Manchester United despite Lampard scoring. Regardless, his efforts would be rewarded as UEFA presented him with a UEFA Midfielder of the Year award. The next season, Chelsea would finish third in the league and win the FA Cup but Lampard's most notable moment was his goal against Hull City. This season would be outdone as they would finally win the league again in the next season as they revalidated their FA Cup title as well. Despite the recent success, as Lampard turned 33, it seemed like his career was dying down and that he would go on to retire without ever winning a major continental trophy and the next season would seem to almost be a confirmation to that statement as Chelsea would not win a single trophy despite taking part in five different competitions. But fortunately, the 2011-2012 season would come to show everyone that it is never too late to accomplish your goals. As Chelsea signed André Villas-Boas from Porto, fans hoped that the new Portuguese coach would be able to replicate José Mourinho's success. At first, the season would look very hopeful with Chelsea managing to go the first 19 matches of the season while only losing once but then a wave of bad results would ensue and as it seemed like Villas-Boas might get sacked, he would manage to go 14 matches without losing again. The issue was that the team kept drawing and soon after going four matches without a win, it would get sacked. This could have meant the worst for the club but the team would persevere and despite having no hopes of winning the league anymore, they would make the most out of their other tournaments. After losing the first leg of the last 16 to Napoli, Chelsea would come back from the two-goal disadvantage to get through to the quarter-finals as Lampard got a goal and an assist in the second leg. In the quarter-finals, they would face Benfica. This would be the easiest of Chelsea's Champions League matches that season with them going through with a 3-1 win on aggregates. The semi-finals were some of the best matches of the decade, especially the second leg. After winning the first leg with a single goal by Didier Drogba, Chelsea would go into the second leg hoping that Barcelona would be unable to score, but by the 44th minute, Barcelona had turned the tie around. How could Chelsea possibly beat what might have just been the greatest team of all time? Well, soon after the second Barcelona goal, Lampard assisted Ramires who, at the moment of brilliance, scoring with a stupendous flick over the goalkeeper. Minutes later, in what can only be described as pure luck, Lionel Messi, who managed to score 91 goals that year, missed the penalty. If Chelsea kept that result, they would go through to the final, but to further embarrass the mighty Barcelona, Fernando Torres would quickly react to a long ball, running all the way from the centre circle onto Victor Valdes, who he would dribble as he put the ball into the empty net to seal Chelsea's victory. As their run looked already to be the stuff of dreams, Chelsea had to face the seemingly unbeatable Bayern Munich. Well, the match went on for 83 minutes without goals until Thomas Müller scored the first goal of the match. Fortunately for Chelsea, Didier Drogba would tie the match only three minutes later. In extra time, Arjen Robben would see Petr Cech save his penalty in what looked to be another miracle for Chelsea. Perhaps this was a warning for Bayern, as the game would eventually go into penalties and eventually Petr Cech would get a save, which Drogba would capitalise on to give Chelsea their first ever Champions League trophy. It wasn't yet time for Lampard to say his goodbyes as the next season, Chelsea would incredibly only manage third place in their Champions League group and would see themselves get thrown into the Europa League. Maybe this wasn't so bad after all as they would go on to win it as they defeated Benfica in the final. This would be Lampard's last ever trophy as he would play for four more years, one last year at Chelsea that went by without any honours. His post-Chelsea career was sort of a mess, with Lampard supposedly signing for New York City FC but being called to play for their parent club Manchester City which not only led Chelsea fans to feel betrayed by their legend but also New York City fans to ask for season ticket refunds as they claimed that they only bought them in order to see Lampard. In summary, it was a whole mess, still his only season at Man City would go by trophyless and he would finally leave for New York City FC where he joined David Villa and Andrea Pirlo. Despite the historic trio playing together in a minor league they would not make it to the playoffs and would get a lot of criticism from the media. His second season there and the last of his career would be equally disappointing which might have been partially what led him to finally retire at the age of 38. Frank Lampard is not only one of the greatest ever English players, he had the pleasure of being involved in one of the biggest open discussions in English football and be one of the most memorable members of the golden generation. He finished his career at Chelsea by taking part in the club's greatest ever achievement, Frank Lampard is nothing short of a footballing legend. Getting into our ranking system now, starting with finishing, we're talking about a man that scored more goals in his career than Ronaldinho, he has to get a 9 out of 10. Then playmaking, which in my opinion is his most impressive attribute, he gets a 9 out of 10. In dribbling, he falls just short of the best of the best, he gets a 7 out of 10. In terms of his speed and physicality, he gets another 7 out of 10 as he wasn't the strongest or fastest player but he was a good mix of both which led him to be quite imposing in the pitch. And finally his mentality, Lampard always looked determined to win, focused and he was deadly, always keeping his cool, he gets an 8 out of 10. Now we will focus on his legacy, first consistency, which once again it's hard to assess as he barely ever played outside Chelsea, at least at the highest level. As he failed to show up in both world cups he played, he only gets a 6 out of 10. When it comes to flair, he was satisfying to watch but not at Ronaldinho's level by any means so he gets a 7 out of 10. Then looking at his trophy cabinets, it's really just not that impressive, with only 14 titles he can only get a 6 out of 10. His longevity was pretty good but nothing outlandish so he gets an 8 out of 10. And lastly the icon factor, he certainly is a legend but perhaps due to his generation being full of english talent he failed to stand out as much as it would be expected for a player of his quality, so he gets a 6 out of 10. This totals out to 73 out of 100, which places Lampard right under Luis Figo, this clearly shows that it's been hard for me to keep consistent when giving these scores as I consider Figo to me a much better player than Lampard, and soon I will make a video fixing the ranking to make sure that it truly shows the worth of This was Lampard's career in a video, see you soon.