FRANK LAMPARD'S FIRST PRESS CONFERENCE AS COVENTRY CITY HEAD COACH 💬

Yeah, very enjoyable. A long day. Got to the training ground, I've been able to meet all the very good people working there, I'd heard that. The training ground, I'm talking staff generally. It's a very warm place, the training ground, so that was nice. It was a welcome. And obviously meet the players and speak to them and have my first training session which I enjoyed. I've worked on the grass for a while now so it's been nice to get out with the players. Form some early relationships and we also have a tight turnaround to Saturday which is the absolute priority as it stands. What was the excitement about this challenge in particular that's brought you back into football management? Well, a respect for the club and a realisation of the history and traditions of the club. I grew up and remember very well successful moments for the club, playing in the top flight. I made my debut as a West Ham player against Coventry which is a nice touch. I didn't realise that all those years ago it would come back round in that way. And the relationships currently, speaking to Doug, my owner, those conversations and talking about the ambitions of the club and where he wants to take it. So I'm here to help in my role. And from my own point of view looking at the squad and having an understanding of it and thinking how I want to coach and where I want to go to and how I can have good impact, I've got a positive view on the squad. Now of course we're where we are on the table for reasons, for me to find out and make better. But I am very much looking forward to working with the players and so I'm here. Do you have any targets you've been set by the man to your left? No, not as such. He maybe can answer that better than me. We're all ambitious but we also have to be realistic. So I have to come in and work and my idea is to work and put one step in front of the other for the players to get better and better quickly. Because I think the quality is there in this squad. It's a young squad. I always enjoy working with young players, from working at Derby to working at Chelsea. So I'm ambitious to be better. For me personally, I don't have those far crazy targets far away. I have what's the next game and how can I impact this team in a positive way, which is what I'm trying to do. You've been out of management for a while, do you feel refreshed coming back to the country? Yeah, I guess I do. I think it's a very consuming business as a manager, head stroke, head coach. I enjoy that side of it but of course for work-life balance, sometimes being out of the game, other than fielding the questions of when you're going to get back in the game, you actually can try and spend some valuable family time and valuable learning time of seeing the game from the outside, thinking about, reflecting on things, looking to the future, trying to be better for when you next come to work. So that's been a nice period. I've got young children as well, so that's been great. But I feel certainly refreshed and ready to go and very happy to be here, ready to go. Do you see Coventry City as a similar sort of challenge to Derby County? Well, it's a different phase of my coaching career. I went into that in my first job and learned a huge amount and I have to say I had a really, really enjoyable time there. A huge thanks to my owner at the time, the club, the tight-knit people we worked and we got to a play-off final and unfortunately fell at the last hurdle. So for me it was only really good experiences until that end bit. Is this a different moment and model? Yes. I think it's very hard to compare directly. But what I did like from conversations with Doug and with the people at the club is this feeling of warmth and where we want to get to and that's kind of what I felt at Derby. And also I worked with young players at Derby and we can improve them and get a good feeling going and I could at that point affect the style in the way I wanted to and I hope to do that again here. You'll be aware of how popular and successful your predecessor was and the decision to move him on was universally popular. Does that make the job a little harder for you? Well, firstly I've got complete respect for the job that Mark did here, absolutely, because viewing it from the outside you can only give credit and understanding, like I said, the rigours of this job to be here for such a long time and to have the success and momentum and movement he did and what he was involved in at the club is a huge thing. So I'd like to look at it as a point of can I pick up the good work that he did in his own way and when I look at the squad it's a tactically adaptable squad, used to playing in different formations, well recruited, all these things under his tenure as a manager. So I think that is something that I can only think that's good. You come into work off the back of someone who has laid some foundations. I'm very aware of it. Listen, I only want to come here and work hard to give my best for this club and for every fan of Coventry that's viewing this appointment is to say how hard I'll work to affect the things I think I can affect, which is to hopefully bring success all round to this club. But absolute respect for what Mark did over his time here. Is it realistic to believe you couldn't challenge for the play-offs this season? I don't want to go anywhere near that because we understand the Championship can move and change very quickly but nothing is given to you. So every step now has to be the one that's right in front of us. Because you can build momentum quickly in this league, it can also kick you in the area. You don't want to be kicked in if you don't stay on it because there's a Championship. So I think it's very important we don't get too far ahead of ourselves. As I say, I can sit here and go, yes, I've got a good belief in this squad because I've viewed it a lot, I've looked at it and I think I can help. But going beyond that is not worth me saying at the moment. Frank, by any measurement, you've had an amazing career, a very illustrious career as a player. What draws you to do football management? I wouldn't say I don't need to, I mean that's too simplistic. I understand your point, I had a long career so certain people might think I don't need to, I guess they're talking financially I guess maybe. But when you live something and you have a long playing career and you decide to go into coaching and management, all of a sudden you start again in certain ways. So from being a player where you can be selfish, you concentrate on yourself, what part of the team you have, you're the holder of a lot of responsibilities that you never even probably thought about. So me stepping into Derby for that first time was a big eye opener of wow, this is about people as much as it is about football and things like that. So when you're interested in those things and you want to get better every day, for me, I can't turn that off. So I've had a nice time out of the game but I want to get back in because this is what I love doing. I love coaching players, I love working with the players on the training ground, I love the idea of giving fans an exciting team to watch and getting results for those fans. As I look back on my career with Derby, as I said I get to a player final at Chelsea, we managed to make it to the Champions League at Everton and I stayed up. So I've had good moments and good work and then moments obviously where it leaves me out of a job maybe and coming here. So these are all experiences for me and as a manager you have to understand that it will be an accumulation of experiences and I really look forward to this one. I'm keen to get going. I've been a sports person as long as I can remember. Since I was a kid I played every sport let alone become a professional footballer which was my dream. So I think adulation was probably more important to me in my 20s than it is in my 40s. Scoring the goal and putting your arm up and hearing the fans. It never goes short on you, it's always an amazing feeling but as you get older you just kind of feel this is my job. So I want to make people happy, sure, but I'd much rather than sing the name of a player than sing my name because those 20-year-olds will love it like I did. So really I just get my head down and do the job and hopefully I can do a successful one. How do you see Coventry City playing? I don't want to go too far ahead. We've got a game on Saturday, hopefully the proof will be in the pudding and you'll see that. So I think it's important that I affect it in the way I want to do. I want to play exciting football. What coach would sit here and say the opposite of that? But I think for me to go into the detail at this point is not. I've got belief in the squad, I want us to be exciting to watch in an attacking sense. I also want us to be very difficult to play against without the ball and that's also a priority for me walking into this job to make sure we get that right. To feel like we can put pressure on the team to win the ball back as high as we can. But I don't want to make any promises at this point as in I just want to work and my answer can only be in the work that I do and what the players deliver. My friend, obviously we went through the process and he was the outstanding candidate that we felt was right for the moment and right for this period for our development as a football club. As simple as that really. It was thoroughly done. As I said, we had a lot of great applications and we had a shortlist that was high calibre but Frank stood out. We got on great and I think he's putting himself back in the arena which is a brave thing to do always and I think he's ready to come back in the arena from our conversations and we're really happy to have him with us. Andy Turner written, haven't telegraphed? You've done a lot of homework over the last week or so and I'm assuming you didn't watch the stadium yourself but what are your first impressions of the squad? Well I think I've touched on it but I think it's a talented squad. The age profile of the squad is good in terms of I think there's, we hope, uplift with good work in individuals and the team collectively. I think the balance of the squad is good in terms of when you look positionally, the backup that we have, it's an important thing to have a balanced squad. I've worked with balanced squad, I've worked with less balanced squad. It makes a big difference for everybody to be invested in what you're doing and to keep pushing in the right direction. As I say, there's a reason why we are where we are at this point. Those are reasons for me to work away but if you talk about those two performances, I think Sheffield United deserve to win the game. Regardless of circumstance in terms of a red card, I think we started the game very well and from then on tried everything to win the game. Burnley was a very tough match away from home where it can happen where you go away and lose a game like Burnley and there's things that I can pick up from both of those games in their own way that help me probably coming in to see what I can affect hopefully quickly. Have you spoken to talk about the January transfer window in the forum a couple of weeks ago? Did I? And I know it's a difficult window in which to operate but is that something that you'll be looking to get a bit of a sprinkling of magic if you got here and there? Maybe go on your contacts with Chelsea or something like that? Yeah, who am I going to bring in from Chelsea? Gilles Felix or something? Yeah, I know. It's not that simple but I see your point and there are... I've had good experience with youngsters from Chelsea but some periods are different than others. If a player comes they have to affect us in a really positive way so of course that's what would be worth to be done but we have had some conversation but absolutely it's not my priority. I think we've got enough games in the meantime and this squad is strong enough to really get to work with what we've got and of course when January comes if we have a joined up conversation we'll make those decisions but it's certainly not been anywhere near top of the list in our conversations so far I must speak honestly about that. I've just appointed a head coach. It's been busy on that front obviously for the last three weeks. Obviously we're moving the structure of the football club a lot from the last two years from where it was so the ultimate goal as I mentioned is to get that structure set up but it's not like it's going to happen tomorrow. We're just going to take our time, bed in the new coaching team that have come in today only. We've got seven or eight games for the end of the year and that's our focus is just to ease it in and just try and get off to a good start with the new set-up. You mentioned at the forum that you wanted stability going forward to pull on from the stability you've had over the last seven and a half years with Amal. Frank's been given a two and a half year contract which is ready to be short I guess. What's the thing you've now ironed out? Well I think most managers don't last that long do they? I mean two and a half years is a good stint right? I mean obviously contracts can be extended at any point can't they? You start it off, it's a logical sort of period to come in half a season in and then have a full pre-season to get your teeth into it. I wouldn't read anything into that at all. We negotiated the deal and that's what we did. And in terms of Frank's remit, you wanted Mark to get three play-offs out of five. What was Frank's remit? I mean we came out when I bought the club two years ago, pretty much this time two years ago. That was our aim was to try and hit the play-offs three out of five years. We obviously hit the one in the first year, narrowly missed it last year. But look it isn't a day for you know what, how, what can be achieved. It's a day for a new, we haven't had a new head coach here for eight years nearly right? I mean it's a big day, it was a lot of excitement today at the training ground. Just because when you have change after that long, it is really quite novel actually. So I felt the energy and I think that was really what I was looking to see. It was a cold day but you felt the energy and there's a lot to do. But you know we've got a long contract and I trust in Frank and his coaching team, whatever happens we get on with it and we do it properly and we do it the best we can. Frank, just looking at your managerial record, I mean first season in the Derby, the play-offs, I think fourth in the Premier League, FA Cup final at Chelsea, Everton, survival despite all the issues that have obviously come to light since you left. But externally, since you've got this job, there's a few people saying it's a bit of a risk. I mean looking at that record, it's the one to be proud of isn't it? Well I'll let you say that rather than me. I think, I'm not an owner, I'm hiring a head coach, a manager, but I would say everything probably is a risk in this job. We all make those decisions and views and also in this modern world everyone can have an opinion and I wouldn't expect any opinion, any decision of a manager to be universal really. I would say the things that you said about my managerial career, the positive things, we have to live in a world of the spotlight when you're a head coach. If you don't want that then don't sign up for it. If you're not brave enough to take that then don't worry, sit at home and be an ex-player that decides to do something else. It's much easier to work in the media, it's much easier to sit at home or play golf. I like to work. So my only answer to any people like that, which is what it would always be, is just give me a chance to work. Because of the clubs I've worked at I think I've done some good work and I know I have good staff with me and I know I feel like I'm walking into good people around me. And those things are very important. If I've learned anything in my managerial lifetime, it's that when you work with good people in the same direction then you have a chance to have success. So just try and do that. But people are very, very entitled to their opinion, absolutely. And how important is it for you as a British coach to still... Well, whether British or not, I mean I know it's a talking point in terms of British managers. I think British managers should be given a chance and sometimes they're given even more stringent opinion against them, I think. Certainly I think sometimes ex-players, if I'm honest. But again, I don't want to hang on that because it's not really important. What's important to me now is to work, whether I'm British or from anywhere in the world, to work with my idea. And it should hopefully be very visible what I'm trying to do, what sort of style I want to bring to the team. And that we can win points, which is our first step, as I keep saying here, to win games. Because winning helps, everything helps. Winning helps the training, the development, the feeling, everybody together. So we have to try and find that as quickly as we can. But you know, it is and that's what's on my CV, it's on my experience. It's a good thing for me that I've been through that already before and I understand that we work very hard to get to a play-off. One of my high, high points is winning the semi-final in a play-off just because of how tough I knew that game would be, squad per squad and against the manager. But when I look back at that year, I remember some very difficult times and it's very important that you stay level-headed in difficult times to keep moving in the forward direction. Because as you say, it's a very rigorous league and it's demands. So I'm ready for that. I have to be the one that sets the tone of staying in the right direction. How would you say you've changed in terms of your approach to the job? When I left Chelsea I went into a job that was a bit of babysitting for me, if I'm honest, in terms of going over to Tideover for seven weeks. I learnt a lot, not in coaching terms, it wasn't a coaching job, it was a holding the baby job whilst the transition was happening. And I learnt that if you don't get the environment right then it's very difficult to succeed. And Chelsea in that moment was in transition. Now as you can see the environment's changing there and you can see the results of that on the pitch mainly. So I know those things. So from all my experiences you learn bit by bit. And even if you say, not tactically, when I'm out of the game, it gives you even more time to look at the game from outside the staff office at Everton or staff office at Chelsea. It's actually what's happening with the game. I watch so many games a week at home. So that's quite nice. You can really study time to things you want to improve a little bit, things you're seeing. So hopefully I've improved in different areas. Have you missed the Championship? I loved the Championship. I loved my time at Derby. I loved my time, as I say, with the people I worked with behind the scenes. I loved being able to try and work with the young players and I also had experienced players that were great for me at Derby. And as you say, the up and down nature of the league was testing and challenging. But I've been used to that as a player because I was lucky enough to play at a level where it was Premier League, Champions League, Premier League, Champions League. So I went on to work at Chelsea and it was the same. So there's similar demands, maybe slightly different spotlights. But I loved my time at Derby and I want to enjoy my time here. I feel like I know what I'm walking into in a sense of that, having experience of it. But this will be a different challenge. It will be things I don't even know today that will be a challenge tomorrow. And that's the thing as a manager, you always be ready to take on the next one. Do you think that by the end of this, we'll have a better understanding of where you are as a manager, whether you can kick on again? Because for all the great things that John said about your career, and that's all true, there seems to be question marks about yourself and you seem to have got all the ingredients here to make a success of it. Do you think we'll have a much better idea of your standing as a football manager when your time is at the country? I can't predict the future. I understand the question. I think every situation is about context. From managing Derby and having a lion's share of possession and being able to create a high-pressing team that would play quickly for the Lions was because I had players that could do it and the players I brought in actually at that point affected it to allow me to have the style that we affected. In the context of Chelsea, it was academy players that needed to be played because of a transfer ban. It brought energy into a team that already had some good players, of course, but was in a different situation to what Chelsea had been in recent years. They allowed me to play a high-pressing, high-attacking in that first season I had there. I can be very proud if I know that when I look back as well. And then the challenge of Everton was the context of a relegation battle. So I'm not really bothered about people's opinions about how they want to judge it because as a manager, you only know what's in front of you when you work in behind the scenes. So I know the context of that and I don't want to sit here and try and go, I want to do this to show the world. I'm driven. I like to prove people wrong. I did it in my football career. If they want to feel something's wrong, I did it in my playing career a lot. It was a drive for me. And as I say, as a manager, you know you're going to have to prove people wrong. It doesn't matter whether it's me or Pep Guardiola at this moment in time or Sanchez-Sanchez or somebody who's in a relegation battle or somebody who's just lost their job, there'll be opinions about it. It's no problem. But I've only got to think about what's my job. Why have you bothered? Because you don't need this. How do you know? Do you know? I don't know. I understand it, but it's like a loose question. I actually get asked that a lot. Are you going to get back in the game? Why do you need to? I go, well, I'm 46. I must have put my slippers on. It's vulgar talking about that. You've been incredibly successful. You've got your pick of the things you could do. You could go and buy an off-the-shelf business and run that, or you could go into football. You could go into consultancy. You could go into agency. I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that. It's a certain type. You don't have to put yourself through this. It's a more dry existence. Yeah, but I've had these questions before when I've been working. It's true, but they come from you, and maybe I want to flip it and ask you, why are you doing your job? It's not all... I've been doing it for 33 years, so... There you go. Okay. It's wearing you down. I don't... It's a double whammy. I don't... Listen, I get it, as I say, because a lot of people talk about the stress is put on management. Again, you have to be big enough to take it, but there is also enjoyment in it. There's also enjoyment of getting up and putting yourself out there and taking on the challenge of working with players, trying to win a game, trying to pick a squad, learning about people, working with your owners, working with people around you. There'll be some really good people that I'll be walking into, which I felt today in the building, that I can get some of their expertise in analysis or sports science and these things coming together. That's a great challenge for me. It's very simple to say, why don't you just sit at home? I don't want to. I want to work. No, I'm not disappointed because this is a business where jobs have become available very well pushed for by a lot of good coaches out there that want to work. You can never gauge what that might be, who may get given a job, if you may not, or whatever. I've had different opportunities in this last period of time that I've turned down that I didn't want to do as well. So this has come along. I'm more happy with what this opportunity is for me. I can't come out of some of the challenging jobs I had, I suppose, going back to Chelsea. Being there the first time was an amazing challenge that I loved. Going to Everton was, again, a really enjoyable time. But it was a real footballing challenge because of all the things that were going on. So for me to take a view and to go into a project, if you want to call it here, where I can get working, I've got no ego that needs to take me to the Premier League. I'm very happy to work with people to try and make this club better. I want Coventry fans to be happy with the club that I produce, and that would be whether I'm in the Premier League, the Champions League. I've been offered opportunities abroad, which I haven't wanted to do. This was the right opportunity for me. Does it help you not being under the radar? I'm used to being under the radar or over the radar. I played at a level where there's severe spotlight, World Cups, etc. So I'm fine with that either way. Listen, I wouldn't say under the radar because you want to come into Coventry and say being their manager is under the radar. People are going to say, no, you're not. I get that. But funny enough, when you live it, it becomes the same. My first critic is myself. If we lose a game or training doesn't feel right. So I'm not concerned about that in terms of that. I'm not crying out for anything different than what I've got right in front of me. Are you moving up to the LB? Yeah. In the short term, especially with the schedule we've got up until Christmas, I'll be staying over a lot of time here because we have to front load this and try and get understand how we can make it better straight away. And then once we get past Christmas and Santa's been and all that stuff, I can work out exactly how I can have more roots here. I'm saying Santa because I've got young kids. They're very excited. Frank, can I ask you what you've done in the 18 months? Some of the things that you've done to try and strengthen yourself and learn. Have you gone to other clubs, have you gone to other countries, have you gone to other sports? Yeah, I haven't gone to so many other countries. I'm probably fortunate in my long career, obviously being off the back of a player and putting my roots at different points that I can tap into a lot of expertise and other people that are doing experiences. So I stay very close to other managers that are working in the game. I've had dinners with Thomas Franks and Roy Hodgson, who are a lot of respectful managers. Gareth Southgate before the Euros. I've been lucky. I went up to actually work in a bit of a media capacity at Manchester City and Pep invited me in. We had an hour of chat. I went to see Thomas Frank at Brentford and the work that he's doing. And it's always enlightening no matter what, whether someone sees the game different from you. So I've done a lot of that. But if I'm honest, the main thing I've done is watch a lot of games and probably go back over things that I've done in my training and plan for what may come next. It's not an easy plan in the situation, but I've watched a lot of games and try to watch where a team's doing well and something a bit different, I'll tap into it. So I'll watch back games on the weekend, predominantly Premier League games and Championship games. What do you enjoy watching the most? I think that always changes. I mean, this is my job. I'll watch games on a wide angle. It takes the excitement out of it with the noise off. But for me, tactically, it's good to watch. But I've actually played with Andoni in New York, what Bournemouth are doing this year. Watched a few of their games in terms of their off the ball work and how aggressive they are off the ball. I've watched that. I watched a lot of Ipswich last year. Obvious reasons of being interested in what's happening and credit to the manager and coach and the players and what go into areas where something interests me. Aston Villa last year. So they're great things and it's important as a manager you have your own idea, but you can definitely look at what other people are doing and it's just great to see. Just with that time to sit back and reflect on things you've done right in the past and things you've done wrong, is there something you can change from the past to tweak it and get it that way? Not particularly, because hindsight is a really wonderful thing and you look back, so you definitely learn from things. You go, maybe we've got that wrong. But this is going to be a completely new challenge. So I think all these things, you just build up the layers with things you think you did right. I know things I did right when I was really naïve at Derby in the early stages that I would still do now. I know things that maybe when you think you're getting it right, you maybe feel like you got it wrong after. That sounds a bit wordy, but I've got a good, what might be a relatively short managerial span of experience, has taken me a lot of places. From the top of the Championship to the Champions League to a relegation battle. So I feel like I'm quite loaded with experience. You've mentioned the context of some of your previous jobs. Certainly the two spells of Chelsea and Everton are incredible circumstances to go into. Have the circumstances in those jobs at the start, have they prevented you from being the sort of coach you want to be? I just think you have to adapt to that context. I went into Everton with an idea of where I wanted to go with it. Our first game we beat Brentford 4-1 at Goodison Park and happy days. And then as we go back into league games and you get back to the rigours of the Premier League, I felt and realised that the way we were trying to go would probably have been a big problem for us. So rather than just stick to my identity and way and just keep batting away, I had to change certain things within the set-up. So as much as that might not look so great on my you're an attacking manager CV, I knew I had to do something and that's when I talk about context. So those things are only good when I look back. People go, oh well you've taken on these big challenges and people want to criticise you if it goes wrong. Well you know what, I'll take the challenge, no problem. But with this challenge I feel very positive with the squad and with the relationships I've already spoken about and the conversations. I look at the squad and I see the profile of it in terms of the technical ability of it, the energy of it. Of course it's developing in a sense because of the age bracket of it, but that's really appealing to me to try and make players better. So I think context is important. We're not all managing a group where you can go, this is exactly what I want to be and everything looks perfect. That's not football. Sometimes you have to change your ways. But I want to bring attacking football to this club. Do you think this is the best circumstance or opportunity you've got to be that sort of coach? It's the one that's in front of me, you know. That's it. How have you changed as a coach since the start? I'm more knowledgeable. I'd like to think I'm better through the experience of good and bad. Everything is an experience that can improve you whether it goes well or not. A million times more confident. I probably portrayed confidence in the beginning but I'm much more confident now. Because this job you have to lead by example. I certainly have no fears of the job. I have a real understanding of how I want to coach, how I want to train, the details I want to talk about, the things that are important to me. I've got much more clarity on that than when I first went in. Following those goals in the prep, was the idea always to come back into the Championship? No. It's hard to have an idea when you're out of the game. You wait, you spend time with your family, you keep an eye on football, you do your things to keep your tick in. And you gauge opportunities as and when they come. How much do you think football has changed over the years since you've had off? Tactics always go on and on. How much do you think that's changed and how hard will that be to adapt? Well, it won't be hard to adapt. It always evolves. I think the Championship certainly has evolved since I was in the Championship with Derby because that's a fair period of time. In terms of football, there were different trends. There were different teams trying to do different things. There were teams that wanted to press ultra-high. That's obviously quite new really. There were teams that were trying to build more, maybe more rotations. All things that were there when I was managing a year, 18 months ago and for the last two, three years before that. And all things that I stay across when I'm out of the game. So, it's all interesting things. It's the beauty of, if you ask why you're coaching, I like to get on the right one. I like to tactically get my team as good as I can possibly get them. So, I have to stay abreast of all that stuff. Can I just quickly ask you about the games coming up, Cardiff Saturday and then lots of games against teams just below you on the table, very important period? Yeah, and this is a Championship so every game you have to hold with complete respect for the opponent. I know that from working there before. Every game will be a challenge in a different way, starting with Cardiff, who may be slightly wounded from their result last night, but we know they're fighting. We know they have a manager that's very keen to put his imprint into the team and they have some interesting things that they do in terms of how they play, because I've been able to watch a bit of them now. So, we'll focus on Cardiff and we'll focus on the games that come after that. But my main focus in the short term is on us, is on what I can affect for us to try and give the lads confidence in the way we want to go and consistency in our work.