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Frank Lampard can look back on 2025 as a roaring success. The Coventry City manager is striving towards Premier League promotion after missing out in the play-offs last season.
Lampard seems not only at home at Coventry, but at ease. Winning matches is football's ultimate social lubricant but there's something more at play here, where a club's supporters and managers appear to have taken to one another.
Frank Lampard on connecting at Coventry
"Theres a feeling of togetherness," Lampard tells FourFourTwo, explaining that he's aware of the hard times that came before him.
"I havent been part of the journey of the club, where they went through terrible times, down to League Two and back up. I remember seeing some images at the time, and now I hear more stories about not being able to do this or that at the training ground, the stadium and the fan experience."
"I havent lived that, but can imagine how they feel now everything is together. There has been a lift for everybody.
"The challenge now is whether we can take that forward and improve even more. We need to continue to work hard, and when I say that, sometimes in this league you cant work hard when training because youre playing every three days, but what you can absolutely do is focus the right way.
"Any team that wants to win in this league has to be consistent, then there will be a little knock and you have to go again.
"Weve got a really good group in terms of how much they want to take on information and how much they want to engage in training to get better as a group. Thats not always universal."
Beyond the basic truth of the league table, Lampard's players can see the impact of his outlook and methods on their own fortunes. He's quick to pass on a share of the credit.
Lampard and Coventry opted for an experienced midfield player as their first signing in January 2025 and his acquisition has underpinned the Sky Blues' improvement.
"[Matt] Grimes is as good as, if not the best signing Ive made for the impact hes had pound-for-pound in this team his levels, how hes made people improve around him, how he is on the training pitch, how he is day-to-day," says Lampard, who is ranked at No.3 in FourFourTwo's list of the best Premier League midfielders of all time.
"Youve seen the development of other players. I think Victor Torp, we saw very quickly there was a great player in there technically and physically, everything, and we wanted to work with him.
"He and Grimes are very, very smart footballers."
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