Can Frank Lampard Keep Coventry Up? | Tom Grennan Interviews His Hero

I'm Tom Grennan, musician by trade, but today I'm just a fan living his absolute dream. An entire generation of Sky Blues fans have never seen this club in the top flight until now and I'm about to meet the man who broke the 25-year exile and brought magic back to this club. Coventry City, Frank Lampard. The boardroom. You need to change the carpets in here though. How are you? I'm all right, how are you? Good to see you. I'm in the interviewer chair today. I like it. It's all right, isn't it? I feel like I belong here. Yeah, friendly face. Well, we first met in 2024 at Soccer Aid. You were my gaffer before all these lot. And I remember speaking to you about maybe potentially coming here and I've still got the text message on my phone when you got the job. Do you remember what you said? It was early morning on the drive up, wasn't it? Yeah. Did I swear? You did. Yeah, you did. It would have been something like, up the Cobb or something like that. For me, it was such a good feeling because I remember saying to you, if you do go to Cobb, they're going to love you up here. And a lot of people don't realise how big this club is. And then when you come here, you just see it and you go, wow. I didn't realise. Obviously, Coventry, when I was coming through as a player, they were always in the top division. Always had respect for it as a club and then obviously looked from the far, saw the difficulties they went through. But you're right. We did Soccer Aid, didn't we? And you were a stand-up player, by the way. Oh, yes. I remember Harry telling me because Harry Redknapp did it with us and he was like, Tom Grennan. He went, he could have been a player. He could have been a player and you played like that. But I remember the conversation and I remember Coventry was obviously, I've been out of work for a little while. Soccer Aid was like a nice break in the middle of that, actually, which was great. Feels like ages ago now. But then when the opportunity came up, things like that were in my head, your conversation. I didn't realise until I got here the size of the club. And it was a difficult moment. Managers left. Mike Robbins had left. So I think my first game was like 20,000, 22. You get that feeling. But then as momentum started to grow and it's all nice history now, but this place was rocking. You've got to pull up and I realised the city and the fan base and the history was a massive, big deal. Yeah, man. You're a legend in Coventry now, man. At the minute. You are. You will always be. You had so much success as a player, but when automatic promotion was finally locked in, did that winning buzz feel different as a manager than being a player? Yeah, it did. It's different, yeah. I even get a bit of goosebumps when you say it because people ask me that question a bit and they ask me as soon as we got promoted. And it's hard to sort of balance that, you know, like winning the Champions League with Chelsea. I couldn't put those moments down at all. They're amazing. Winning in Munich was the best footballing night of my life as a player by far. But then when you do something with a club that's been through what it's been through, when you work with a group of lads that are so great, there's a dressing room I've never experienced, especially as a coach, to have such a good group and then the link between fans and players. And when you're the manager, the responsibility that you take on every day, for good and for bad, you take defeats badly, you take wins great. And then when it all happened and we got promoted against Blackburn, I had a rush of like pure emotion and everything. It all came on top of me. So it certainly goes right up there in the things I managed to achieve in the game. I was here on the last game of the season when the cup was lifted. I remember just seeing you outside on the mic and I was so proud, man. Like, what a feeling, man. No, thanks. That was a great day. I had my family, you know, my two youngest children were here with Christine. I was sat next to them. Yeah, yeah. So that was special. I think the things in life and in football, and I've failed at this sometimes, is taking in a moment, you know, as a player. I don't know if you feel it in what you do. Sometimes you get used to it and you go, my next thing's coming. My mum actually said this to me recently, to take in the moment. When I'm on stage, for example, just stand there, look out to what you have done and what your team have done and what my team have done. So you have to do those things. And you definitely should. You've got so much more ahead of you. And hopefully I have in my own way. But with a little bit of experience, you should take on your mum's words there because it's really easy to go, you know, the stresses of the show that you're doing and the stresses of that. That was a moment at the end of last season where I could actually go, wow, we've achieved something. We've got a lot here. Personally as well. And stand there with a mic and sort of thank the fans and that. And it's surreal a little bit because 18 months before, I'm in a people carrier texting you, not knowing where this journey is going to go. And then you're standing there and going, this club's back in the Premier League. It was special. You've already managed at the very top with Chelsea and Everton, but rebuilding Coventry and bringing them back up feels like a totally new chapter. Stepping back into Premier League this season, do you feel like you have something to prove to the doubters outside the club? Well, always. It's the thing about modern day football, music, whatever. You're brilliant one minute and then you might not be brilliant the next and everyone will let you know that. So you've got to be careful like trying to prove every doubter wrong because it's not possible. Have I got that inner drive to prove people wrong or show myself as my best, try and get better every day? Yeah, I always have that anyway. So I know the challenge is different and it's going to be difficult. One of the beauties of being here, we've been lucky. These boys have won a lot of games. It's great coming to work again on a Monday. It's great. Go again, lads. We're going to have different challenges this year. So my personal ambition to prove any doubters wrong is sort of always there, but I try not to let that be my driver. I just go and I take everything as it comes, getting the team ready. Day by day. Taking, learn a bit from experiences at Chelsea and Everton. I've been in the Premier League as a player. I've been here as a manager. I understand the challenge of it. I can't get ahead of myself and I can't worry too much about the outside world because otherwise you succumb to it. You'll be, you know, making different decisions even because of it. How different will the football be from what the football you've played already in the Championship to where you're going into the Premier League? Yeah, that's a great question because we spent a lot of the summer analysing the Premier League. I watched the Premier League all the time, but when you're working in a Championship, there's so many games, you're getting goals. You start loving the Champions, you watch every bit of it and you're worried about your team. So this summer, we've really looked quite deeply into the Premier League because it's evolving all the time. Without giving too much away, and things remain to be seen, we want to keep hold of the good things that we were last year, which was we could score any kind of goal. We could play really quickly through teams and counter-attack. We could build and control a game and cross it and score like that. That's how modern-day goals are scored and a lot of transitions and things like that. So we have to keep those things. I think probably the biggest thing for us will be to adapt defensively in our sort of off-the-ball game because the level goes up a lot. The step is crazy. It's a big step. You've only got to look year in, year out the amount of teams that do go back down. And that just shows you the quality level that we're coming into. So we'll be fools not to think that we'll just go and play like we did in the Champ every week and we've dominated a lot of games, especially here. It won't be like that. So we'll have to find different ways to win games, to stay in games, to fight, to suffer a little bit. And there's also a mentality thing to that for us as a management, as players and as fans. We've had it off for 18 months. There's a lot of good feeling, a lot of good times. It's great. We're celebrating on the bus and all those things. This year will be a difficult moment. So it's like we've got to be strong to be able to handle those things. You played with unbelievable players. If someone gave you a little magic wand and said, take a player from the players that you played with, who would you pick and why? Well, I mean, that's a really tough one because there's so many and I'm not putting my boys down. But yeah, the difference. Football at the top level is the difference, mate, because we talk a lot about there's the game in the middle of the park, which now is in the Premier League, particularly as teams are trying to cancel each other out and you win and lose games in the boxes. It sounds really simple. So I'd probably be drawn to Didier Drogba. I was going to say Drogba. Yeah, because Didier had everything as a striker. He also had a massive personality who could bring people with him. And he scores goals and it's priceless. And when goals are a premium and they won't be easy to come by in certain types of games, Didier would always step up in those moments. An entire generation of Sky Blues fans have literally never seen this club at the top flight. I haven't either. If you were sitting here in May, looking back on the season, what has had to have... What? What has to have... What? What has to have happened for you to call it a total success? There's my dyslexia jumping in. I think it's who's written it is the problem, not yours. As I said before, I think it's hard to stand this league. It's been shown time and time again. There's some examples of a Sunderland and Leeds last year. I think a big difference for us is that a lot of our boys haven't played in the Premier League. We've got really minimal caps, like appearances, sorry, in the Premier League. So we need to learn quickly. I need to do my job on myself and the staff as well as we can to prepare the players. We've still got some time in this window to try and bring in some players to help the squad. Maybe some experience of playing, the quality to bridge that gap. But I've got a lot of faith in these boys that they'll give it everything. I think they will too. They're going to war, innit? Yeah, and they always do that. And I feel a real hunger and a feeling from them that people will say you lack Premier League experience. I'll say, yeah, maybe we do and we'll try and maybe sort that out in terms of the market. But I also think there's something about a hungry group that are going into something that haven't been there yet, that sort of youthfulness, that energy that'll go, come on then, let's take that on. Yeah, that's what you need as well. Yeah, and for us to stay in the league, you look at teams, I think you want to bring in players to help the squad. You want to bring in quality. But you also, we had an incredible spirit if we keep that spirit and can add quality, then maybe by May, when we can say we're staying in the league and that'll be a huge step for us. It's a hard one now. I know everyone's going to ask me, it might be on this question, like, will just staying in the league be like your target? Is that success? For me, I don't think of it that way. Of course it will be success because it's such a big challenge for us. But in the beginning, we go into it and go, let's stick our chests out and let's be brave about it. These boys have earned where they've got to. So going in with that attitude, not saying nothing to lose, of course there's a lot to lose, but also go and show yourselves. But what an opportunity to be in the Premier League for the boys. They deserve it. So we're going to take it head on. One more question. Are there specific things Jose Mourinho or Kyler and Chilotti have taught you that you take into your management role? Yeah, that they have. They're the two, generally, I'll talk about, people go, all the managers you work with, who's the best and that. I speak about them a lot. Sometimes I feel bad leaving out big influences as well, like Harry Redknapp. My uncle gave me my opportunity. Different managers, Gus Hedding. But with Jose, the Jose and Carlo is a good example because they're like the both sides of the coin. Jose was very on you, very sort of like, he transmitted his self-confidence. But if you felt you stepped out of line or did something wrong, you'd feel the strength of him. Whereas Carlo was like, chill and calm. And when you look back, you go, that's a nice environment to work in as well because it felt like he trusted you. So I try and take little snippets. I'm probably somewhere in the middle. And if I start to sort of sometimes go towards being Jose, sometimes I go, be a bit more Carlo. You know, I've learned that. Young managers I found in my experience, you come in and feel like you have to do things, like you have to like criticise a bad performance or say something about an individual who turns up late or all these things. The more I've done this job, I realised that we're all humans. And sometimes a lad comes in late, you don't know the backstory. And so being, trying to jump on him and be this hard man manager, you go, be a bit more Carlo. But then if you're a bit more relaxed sometimes and people are, you know, on the pitch, not doing their job, sometimes you're a bit more Jose. So I try and take those moments. I feel like this place is going to be like the Coliseum. People don't know about the Coventry City fans. I think the first game here is going to be electric. And I'm excited. My friends have come up to games through last year, especially when we got on the run. They don't want to come. Now they all want to come. I bet they do. And I'm like, no, no, you didn't come last year. You didn't come to like whoever, like Oxford at home last year. Now you want to come to... But I tell them when they come that you don't realise. I've played in, you know, Stamford Bridge was like home to me for so many years. I've played in all these amazing stadiums, you go to Anfield and stuff. This place has got something special. I'm not just saying it. And away fans as well. But they've really did something last year because they support the individual players as well as the team. Every player's got a song almost. You know, that'll be tested this year because it'll be tough. But when this place gets rocking, I think you're right, we'll have to use it. We'll have to use it as a weapon for us. And we certainly appreciate how the fans are here. Frank, good luck, man. Great speaking to you. And I'll be up here and I'll be cheering. Well, you're always welcome. Thank you, man.