Frank Lampard handed route back into management by European giant after Chelsea disaster

Lyon could be about to turn to Frank Lampard for their managerial vacancy despite the Englishman’s struggles last season.

Lampard returned to Chelsea in a caretaker role last season after being sacked by Everton. His second Stamford Bridge wasn’t as productive as his first, though, with just one victory in 11 matches in charge.

Seven-time French champions Lyon appear not to have been put off by his difficult stint, though. The 45-year-old is said to be among those in the running to succeed Laurent Blanc, who was dismissed after taking just one point from the first four games of the Ligue 1 campaign.

Blanc helped secure a seventh-place finish after taking over a few weeks into the 2022-23 season. However, he leaves with the club rock bottom after a 4-1 home defeat against Paris Saint-Germain in their last outing.

Now, according to 90min, Lampard is one of the men on OL’s shortlist. His inclusion comes after his Chelsea predecessor, Graham Potter, opted against moving to Parc Olympique Lyonnais.

While Lampard is in the mix, he isn’t the favourite. That honour goes to Fabio Grosso, with L’Equipe reporting that the World Cup winning left-back is the front-runner after winning Serie B with Frosinone last season.

Lampard’s first stint as Chelsea manager saw him secure a top-four finish in the 2019-20 season before being dismissed midway through the following campaign with the team in ninth. He returned on a temporary basis after Potter’s brief spell in charge, but failed to salvage a season which had brought difficulties under both Potter and Thomas Tuchel.

His first four Premier League games ended in defeat, with the Blues taking just five points from his nine league outings at the helm. Lampard was also in the dugout for Chelsea’s Champions League exit, when they lost home and away against a Real Madrid side who also eliminated the Blues from the 2021-22 edition of the competition.

Before making way, Lampard suggested Chelsea would need to implement big changes ahead of the new season. “It’s not just finger-pointing at the players because it’s definitely not a lack of effort this evening, but you build up the credit through your training and your prep, and you build up a resilience,” he said after a 4-1 loss to Manchester United in May.