Blogs

Morris: I haven’t given up hope

|
Image for Morris: I haven’t given up hope

Derby County owner Mel Morris has said that he still has hope that Frank Lampard will be manager of his club next season. 

That comes after it was reported by the Sun that Lampard would be unveiled as the new Chelsea manager next week after agreeing a £5.5million-a year deal.

Talking on the Jim White Show (talkSPORT, Wednesday, 11am) Morris said that he knew the Chelsea job was likely to happen sooner or later and that he would have no regrets either way.

“When Frank met me for the first time we talked about this opportunity and I knew it was going to happen at some point. You just didn’t know when and hoped it was a way off.

“As far as I’m concerned I’m still hoping Frank will manage us next season, I haven’t given up hope yet. Listen, for Frank Lampard it’s a win-win, he can’t lose in this situation.

“The last thing you want if someone has a desire to do something, you don’t want them to be looking over their shoulder.

“I have a great relationship with Frank and with Chelsea, and that’s really important. I’ll have no regrets about Frank where he stays or goes.”

OPINION

This is a huge move for Lampard if he does end up taking over at Chelsea. He’s a legend at the west London club – their all-time top scorer with 211 goals across 640 appearances. But, bar some time with the Chelsea academy, Lampard has just one season of experience as a manager. He did a decent job at Derby, guiding the Championship side to sixth and a place in the play-off finals, and Chelsea wouldn’t have come calling if they didn’t like what they’d seen. But it’s an entirely different proposition taking on a massive Premier League club. The expectations are huge and he’ll be expected to finish in the top four as a minimum. There’s a transfer ban at Chelsea at the moment and they’ve sold their best player Eden Hazard. That makes Lampard’s job doubly hard and if Chelsea have a bad season he’s going to get it in the neck from Chelsea fans, and probably Derby supporters too. However, you don’t get far in this world without taking big challenges face on and Lampard obviously believes this is the right job at the right time. 

Share this article