Frank Lampard Joins The Sports Bar After Coventry Win the Championship!

As we are crossing over to speak to Coventry manager Frank Lampard. All right, Frank? Thank you, Lampard. Hi, Jamie. Hi, Jase. Hello, matey. Frank, congratulations, first and foremost. You are back in the Premier League. Well done. Thank you very much. Thanks very much. Yeah, delighted. We obviously got over the line promotion-wise on Friday, and it was a brilliant night at Blackburn with the away fans. And then to come here and do it in front of the home fans with an emphatic display and do it so well and the celebrations at the end and to become champions, because it's one thing getting promotion. It's a big deal for the football club. But to go and do that tonight was was pretty special. Yeah, Frank, there's obviously that's where you wanted to go. You want it. And Joe, really, I watched the interview you've done live. Emotionally, it caught you, right? And you mentioned about how much hard work you and Joe and all the other lads behind the scenes have put into this season. When you reflect on that now, when you think back about that, did it really surprise you about how it caught you emotionally? Yeah, I mean, I'm not I'm not made of stone. And I think I it was more like in terms of the football club, Jase, it's 25 years outside of the Premier League. It's gone down to League Two. We've gone and played in different stadiums. I missed all that stuff. But what I have found in terms of myself and the boys, Joe and Chris, who came up from Chelsea with me, we've worked really, really hard and and you have to in this job. So I'm not I'm not saying that we're special, but we've worked hard. And we've also got a really good group of players here that we in honesty, we didn't expect to be in this situation this season. But we're all so driven that we really want it. And we smelt it towards the back end of the season. And I just had a moment where it caught me a little bit because it's football's about emotions, right? You invest everything in your life to try and have a bit of success and you get caught up and wrapped up in it. I think you can only do the job in that way. And when we got it over the line, I felt a little bit of that for myself, for the boys I'm talking about, from the players and from the whole fan base because of what they've been through. So it was it was genuine. And I got over it. I didn't manage to break into full tears, but I had a little moment. Yeah. And right. And right. So I want to take you back, actually, to the beginning of this year, where you look like you're going to cruise it and no one's going to catch you. And listen, no league is won. There's always going to be a moment in that season where things don't go so well. And there was a period where you did have a bit of wobble. How did you deal with getting out of that? What was the strategy? Well, I think just a reality, you have to realise why and what's happening. And for us, it was a few things. I think you're right. In the championship season of 46 games, the endurance test, we probably hit a bit of a wall in terms of a bit of fatigue. We had a small score at that point. We added to it in January. But at that point, I could see we'd had a few bits where our levels have dropped off just plain and simple from what we were. Teams were really wanting to beat us, which is something new for our boys. You're at the top. Everyone wants to beat you. You feel it in the stadiums you go to. You feel it in the teams you're playing against. They try and work you out. And we had a little reset, specifically in the game going into Middlesbrough at home, where we had a long week into it. We decided to press them because they were playing great stuff and playing out from the back and we were going all in on them. And the boys took a big boost out of that when we got that result. It took us back to the top from dropping out of it for five minutes. And then the boys went on a run, I think eight out of nine wins and amassed a consistency which we'd played for a lot of the first half of the season with. So it was just a little test, I think, of the pressure of being a team that's expected to do stuff. And I think some of us that came on top. And I think my job then was to stay a bit calm, but also be real with the players. And we got out of it. It's a nice part of the season nowadays that we didn't have it all our own way, that we had to get over that and then we came back from it. Frank, you've pretty much achieved everything in the game as a player and your career as a manager is going from strength to strength. You took this club from 17th place, two points off relegation. You are now back in the Premier League. Where does this rank in terms of your achievement? Well, it ranks right up there with all the things I did in my playing career because of the responsibility of being a manager. You feel wins more, you feel losses more. You just have a bigger responsibility. I don't miss playing at all. In fact, I love doing this job now. I realised when my legs were gone and I moved on and I decided this was what I was going to do. And I was fortunate enough. I said this the other night on the telly, but you play with Chelsea. I had great players around me, an individual sort of selfishness. I just wanted to do the best myself. But sometimes you rely on others with this job. I can't run out on the pitch, but you take a lot more on. So in terms of the overall feeling of the success we've had this year, it's right up there. I wouldn't say it's above night in Bayern Munich. It's probably the best night of my life winning the Champions League with Chelsea because of what that meant. But I can definitely put it amongst it in terms of a professional feeling of achieving something and getting a group of lads that were in that 17th place that needed a bit of help at the time and working really hard, seeing progress last year and nearly getting there, but going, we're going to bounce back this year and be the dominant team in the league so hard. The gap between ourselves and the Leeds and Burnley last year felt a lot. And it was a lot of points, maybe 30 points or something. And we've bridged that gap and flipped it and got there. So for myself, I can take some personal pride and satisfaction, but also in my role, you can try and take that as a club on what we've managed to do. You mentioned Leeds and also Sunderland there, Frank. They've come up this season and they've dealt with being in the Premier League extremely well. Have you started planning already? Have you already started looking at what next season might look like for Coventry in the Premier League? Not so much, but I've been thinking about it. I hate to get ahead of myself. It's only these last couple of weeks, probably 10 days or so, that we've known that we're going to be in the Premier League. So we can do and have to do more than one or two things at once. We have to start thinking about what that looks like, because I've played and I've managed in the Premier League. Everybody knows the story of teams that go up. Some spend a lot of money, come back down. Some have managed to do it and done it smartly and stayed back up. But we know that there's a lot of work to do. So they are conversations that we've got to have. We also have moved very quickly in terms of getting the results and getting up through this league. So we need to get ourselves Premier League ready as well as a football club and some things behind the scenes. So we've got a lot of work to do. It's good work. It's a great story. But now we have to quickly get our heads on that and move on to the next and try and give the best account of ourselves as a football club. And that'll be how we invest, how smartly we do it and how we make sure we're up to scratch in the ways we need to be. Frank, just for the Coventry City fans, you know, they've been in great spirits. I've been up there actually this season and they are right behind everything that you've been doing. This is an incredible achievement. They've been out of the Premier League for a long time. They're a massive football club. How delighted are you for them? Absolutely delighted, Jay, and it's it's a really special story here. It's pretty unique. I know there's stories of clubs going down, but I think to go down to League Two and back up to the Premier League, I think we're the first to do that. And the more you listen to fans and talk to them, just walking around the pitch at the end there and the young faces, the older faces, some of the young ones haven't seen the Premier League. The old ones will have memories of great days in the Premier League and FA Cups, etc. So it's made it even more special because it's a really, really strong fan base, stronger than I even realised from the outside before I took the job. And they are a fan base also that maybe it's because we've got a lot of results, but they really back individually. The players have songs for all of them and they've backed us and give us that extra oomph when we need it at home and away. So a huge thanks to them because they've played a massive part of this and they enjoy the party over the next two weeks. Frank, you've been on actually a very interesting managerial journey. I mean, obviously what you did at Derby, then I watched you very closely when you went to Chelsea, Everton, back at Chelsea and then, of course, going to Coventry. How much of a different manager are you now? And what have you learned on that journey? Yeah, I would say I'm a better manager and you have to be because you've got to try and learn every day in this job because of the amount of problems and things you've got to find solutions for, whether it be like tactical staff or dealing with your owner, dealing with a player, dealing with 25 lads who want to play every week. I've probably got a bit more balance. I probably am a little bit more take a breath at certain times and try and analyse things before reacting too much. Probably in your younger days, every win or every defeat or a player that shows some form of what you may see as dissent or sloppiness or whatever, maybe those things I would jump on more now. I'm much more, I think, probably considered or more considered at times. But there are also some things I thought I did pretty well at Derby that I still try and do and there's some things that have maybe changed a bit. But, you know, whatever job you work at, James, when you're moving around in this job, every different group gives you a different problem. And I think I did pretty well at Derby. I think I did pretty well at Chelsea. Everton, we stayed up and then next year didn't have success and you lose your job. And then Chelsea, six weeks back there, I learned as much as anything in terms of the basic principles of what a football club has to have, which had dropped at Chelsea in that period. So all good experience. Hopefully I'm better for it and I'll be ready for whatever the next experience is in terms of what this challenge will be over this summer to look at the club and how can we do the most that we can do here to take this club forward. Well, talking of experiences, you said on TV the other night that lads won't be going too hard and celebrating after gaining promotion. I'm expecting a proper night out from New Coventry, boys. Where are you going? Well, I'm going home, but I'm a bit older and I prefer to sort of keep my head down at times. I would have gone out for about three days back in the day. The lads can go out tonight. I've given them a couple of days off there and they deserve it because all the work's in their legs through the season anyway. And these are moments to enjoy. This doesn't happen that much. There are a lot of tough moments in football. People talk about my career. Goal, you won this and that. I remember lots of seasons not getting what I wanted in lots of different ways. So when you get it, enjoy it. The boys can enjoy it tonight. They need to be ready for Wrexham because we need a good account of ourselves in the last home game and we're hopefully going to get the cup, I think, after the game and then we go to Watford. But they deserve it. They've been a great group. They're a really good bunch of lads. They're going to have a drink tonight or whatever they want to do. Frank, what's happening with pre-season? Because I know pre-seasons are planned months in advance. They've got to be. I just wondered, is there any changes now that you're a Premier League side? Yeah, we've sort of had a couple of plans for the last month or so. And now we're getting quite a long break because of how our season finishes and they've made a second. So we're arranging around that, as we should do. So the lads will be back and we'll probably maybe have a little mini break midway through pre-season. The plans are still being set, but we we can't get them too long off. But they deserve a good bit of time off and then we'll have a good run at it and make sure we do everything right. Can have a pre-season friendly against Championship side Tottenham? I don't start, but as I've got to say, the amount of drives that me and Chris Jones do driving back from away games. We listen to you boys. You're on fire, honestly. I'm absolutely loving it. Congratulations, Joe, as well, yourself, mate. Thank you. So well done, Frank. Well done, congratulations. Lovely to see you lads. Thanks very much. All the best. Cheers. Take care. Frank Lampard there. Congratulations to Coventry City. If you are a Coventry City fan, give us a call. Huge night for the football club back in the Premier League. I mean, fair play to him. He's done a great job there, hasn't he? He's done an unbelievable job. You made the point there. He took over, I think it was not last October, October before, around about that time when they were flirting with relegation. There was plenty of time. He got him into the playoff. Sunderland scored that late, late damn Ballard goal at the Stadium of Light, which absolutely would have crushed them, crushed them, because they were good that day, Coventry. But they've had to come back and go again. Come back and go again, not only just to go again, but also do what they've done and win it and win it in style. Well, well done then. It's a great story. But now the hard work starts. No time off. No, the hard work really starts. And Frank knows that, you know? Well, well done to Frank. Going back to Chelsea, mate, what happened? I hope Frank doesn't listen tonight in the way I am. I hope he's not listening. What's happened though, mate? I don't want Frank listening to the sports bar tonight now, mate. No, no, Frank, just go home, Frank, don't worry. Keep the calls coming in. 03717222344.