Coventry chairman King shrugs off reports linking Lampard with Chelsea return

LONDON: Coventry City chairman Doug King ‌is unconcerned about the prospect that Frank Lampard, the manager who led the club back to the Premier League after 25 years, may leave in the close season, with reports linking the coach with a return to Chelsea.
Lampard spent 13 years at Chelsea as a player, and was twice appointed as the club’s coach, including a short stint as caretaker manager in 2023.
The former England midfielder, who won three Premier League titles, four FA Cups and ‌one Champions League ‌title with Chelsea during his playing ‌career, ⁠led the club ⁠to the FA Cup final as manager in 2020.
King said Lampard was in a “happy place” after winning his first trophy as a manager when Coventry secured the Championship title this week.
“You can see how emotionally connected (Lampard) is with the city, you can see what it meant to him ⁠to get promotion and then the title ‌and I think he’s found ‌a happy place at the moment,” King told the BBC ‌in an interview published on Thursday.
“It doesn’t mean there’s ‌not going to be some staggering bid for him in the summer and he’ll have to make his choices, because he’s shown his credentials as a high-quality head coach, but I’m ‌not going to comment on that, I can’t control it.
“I just think he’s happy, I’m ⁠happy, everybody’s ⁠happy, we’ve just got smiles on our faces and we don’t worry about what may or may not happen for the head coach.”
Lampard’s contract with Coventry runs until June 2027.
Chelsea sacked manager Liam Rosenior on Wednesday amid a five-match Premier League losing streak in which the eighth-placed club failed to score a single goal.
Manager Andoni Iraola, who will leave Bournemouth in the summer, has also been linked with Chelsea in British media