"This is a win-win." Frank Lampard was clear. A 'win-win' is to eliminate Madrid, change the fate of a failed career so far as a coach, quite the opposite as a footballer, possibly the best, given his regularity and titles, in the history of Chelsea. He still holds the record of having played 164 consecutive games in the Premier League, between 2001 and 2005. When the new owner, Todd Boehly, called him, he knew it wasn't the same as Roman Abramovich, with whom he had a special feeling. None of that. It was for a circumstantial mission, while summoning Luis Enrique and Julian Nagelsmann for consultations. "If I beat Madrid, everything can change. If I lose, nothing will," he told himself. The 2-0 at the Bernabeu made the most difficult bet in a team that does not only need a coach. A therapist is urgently needed. At Stamford Bridge he has no choice but to double down on his bet: all on target, all or nothing.

In the neighborhood of Chelsea there are no faces of optimism. Nor in the team, although most agree that, in the situation of inferiority in which the team played more than half an hour in the first leg, the result could have been worse. Lampard is very 'polite', educated, son of the middle class, unlike the Wayne Rooney or Steven Gerrard who were part of his generation in the selection. The social barrier, in fact, meant that he did not connect as well as the pross would have needed on the pitch, especially with Gerrard in midfield. It also happened in his own team with the central John Terry, coming from the 'working class'. Lampard was not only a great footballer, but he was tailor-made for the elite Chelsea, whose fans include Michael Caine, Sebastian Coe, Matt Damon and Will Ferrell.

GUARDIOLA'S PATH

Lampard was what Pep Guardiola and now Xavi Hernández to Barça or Diego Simeone to Atletico. However, the Englishman leaned too much on the aura of his figure, with very little experience, in Derby County, and little previous work. Abramovich's call, in the summer of 2019, was a call from a friend, not just a homeowner. The relationship between the two had been close, to the extent that the Russian oligarch lent him his private yacht during the holidays. It was like an altarpiece of luxuries in the sea. It has nothing to do with Boehly. Lampard resorted, yesterday, to the visits of Abramovich to the dressing room to justify the one made by the American after losing in the first leg: "It is positive that an owner shows his passion."

In a Premier colonized by the great primadonas of the benches, the vast majority foreigners, the bet on an English technician and practically novice was a very high risk. In fact, it was a Portuguese, José Mourinho, who managed to get the best performance out of Lampard as a footballer, and an Italian-Swiss, Roberto Di Matteo, who led him to lift the Champions League against all odds. In his mind has also passed that period in which the greatest title of this team came with an interim on the bench.

DIFFICULT WARDROBE

Lampard managed to qualify Chelsea for the Champions League, after making additions such as Havertz, Timo Werner or Chilwell, but the problems began as soon as the following season began. He was fired, amid complaints that he had not heeded his requests for signings and confronted Marina Gravanovskaia, Abramovich's iron woman at the club. The oligarch could not save him in the face of the crisis of results and a distancing with the dressing room that not even his former teammate Peter Cech could correct. Several of those players have now been found again.

At 44, Lampard knows that if he comes out of this express stage, the Premier League can close the doors forever. In his time at Everton, in which he replaced Rafa Benitez, he did not offer anything different either. This tournament respects its glories more than any other, it is in its culture, but it only cedes responsibilities if they work. Something similar happens to Gerrard, after managing Aston Villa. They have not managed to replicate on the benches what they were on the pitch.

"Every game with Chelsea is an opportunity. It is also for me, "he said, yesterday, in a less caustic tone than the one used with his players after the defeat against BrigHton, at Stamford Bridge, where he was received with a banner of support, despite the result of the Bernabeu. He knows that the stands love him, a tough stand to which he appealed to push his players. It is too late for collective mechanisms, but it is not too late for them to "express the individual quality they have". If they do, the result in his opinion, is not a slab and everything can change for this hero or suicide, but always favorite son of Chelsea.

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