Chelsea, the English Premier League club, said on Monday that it had sacked its coach Frank Lampard from his post after suffering five defeats in eight matches in the English Premier League, which caused it to fall to ninth place among the 20 teams of the championship, and Lampard's dismissal came one day after the team qualified for a final price Federation Cup.
Lampard, 42, began his coaching career with Chelsea in 2019, but the results did not live up to the aspirations of the club's owners.
In his first season with the team (2019-2020), Lampard led Chelsea to a place in the semi-finals in the league as well as reaching the final of the England Cup, but he did not achieve the desired results this season despite the club spending more than 220 million pounds (300.94 million dollars) on contracts. New players, which included several prominent players, including Kai Havertz, Timo Werner, Ben Chilwell, Hakim Ziyech and Edward Mendy.
And Chelsea's results began to decline in mid-December after playing 17 matches in all competitions during which he did not know the taste of defeat and qualified for the knockout stage in the Champions League, topping his group, while he was ranked third among the Premier League teams.
The reason for the dismissal of Lampard
"This was a difficult decision for the club, not only because I have an excellent personal relationship with Frank, and I hold him the greatest amount of respect," said Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, owner of the London club.
"He is a man of tremendous integrity and of the highest level of work ethics," the statement added. "However, in the current circumstances, we believe it is better to replace the coach."
The dismissal decision came less than 24 hours after Chelsea beat Luton Town in the fourth round of the FA Cup for the Popular Game on Sunday, and qualified for the round of 16.
Shortly before the dismissal was announced, former England player Gary Lineker wrote on Twitter: "There are reports of Chelsea's sacking of coach Frank Lampard today ... which is regrettable after the first decline in his results."
Lineker added, "He was supposed to give him some time given that there were new players early in their careers for their new club. Nobody recognizes the importance of patience in this sport. They never learn."
A history of dismissals
And Abramovich used to dismiss the coaches one by one from the leadership of the team, as Lampard became the twelfth coach to face the same fate, knowing that the Russian billionaire bought the club in 2003.
The list of coaches Abramovich abandoned includes prominent names, such as Jose Mourinho, Spain's Rafael Benitez and Dutchman Goose Heidnik, as well as five Italians: Carlo Ancelotti, Claudio Ranieri, Antonio Conte, Mauricio Sarri, and Roberto Di Matteo.
Successor to Lampard
Network reported Sky Sports British German Thomas Tokhal , who was sacked by Paris St Germain last month , a strong candidate to succeed Lampard.
The most prominent challenges for the new coach are to help the team occupy one of the first four places in the ranking to participate in the Champions League next season, in addition to overcoming the stubborn Spanish Atletico Madrid in the final price of the continental competition, when the two teams meet back on February 23 and then back in March.