Frank Lampard: How summer spending spree cost him his Chelsea job

• Nicholas Hughes
• Updated: 19 May 2021 15:43 BST
• 2 min read

Nicholas Hughes Updated: 19 May 2021 15:43 BST 2 min read

Frank Lampard’s reign as Chelsea manager has come to an abrupt halt, and the 42-year-old can look squarely at his dealings in the transfer market as the reason why.

The former Blues midfielder spent over £200 million in the summer on transfer fees alone, while also adding Thiago Silva on a free transfer.

For the most part, the summer signings have been a relative failure so far, particularly in the forward areas.

Frank Lampard’s summer spending breakdown

Edouard Mendy, Ben Chilwell and Silva have all helped sure up what was a leaky defence last season, but the heavy-hitters up front have failed to hit the mark.

Arriving with big expectations and immediately placing Chelsea among the title-contenders, Hakim Ziyech, Timo Werner and Kai Havertz have managed just six goals and nine assists between them across a combined 45 appearances in the Premier league.

Ziyech has been too inconsistently available with niggling injury issues, Werner has been wasteful in front of goal and Havertz has so far demonstrated he doesn’t have the work rate or the engine to cope in the Premier League.

Werner in particular was seen as being a major coup for the club having seemingly beaten Liverpool to his signature, but the fact that both Tammy Abraham and Olivier Giroud have as many or more goals as the German in all competitions proves his woes.

Lampard’s hire at the club coincided with a ban on transfers and the loss of talisman Eden Hazard, leaving him rather hamstrung in the market when he first arrived.

But when given the licence by Roman Abramovich, Lampard has failed to deliver in the transfer market and has paid the price of his job as a result.

The Blues have won just twice in their last eight league games and are ninth on the table, although they have reached the last 16 in both the FA Cup and the Champions League.

The objective of the next Chelsea boss, most likely to be Thomas Tuchel, will be to get the best out of the summer recruits and show greater responsibility in future spending as Chelsea chase a return to the summit of the Premier League.