Ahead of this weekend's FA Cup final between City and Chelsea, check out this special interview with Frank Lampard who represented both clubs. This feature was first published in February 2024.
Frank Lampard is unequivocal when asked about his time playing for Manchester City, warmly and nostalgically exclaiming: ‘I loved it from day one’.
Lampard joined City, then Premier League champions, in August 2014 and had a solitary season in blue.
Lampard admits it was a ‘tough decision’ to sign for City due to his affiliation with Chelsea, where he’d won the Champions League, the Europa League, three Premier League titles, four FA Cups, two League Cups and two Community Shields.
But the chance of a new adventure and, importantly, the opportunity to remain in the Premier League was too good an opportunity to miss.
It a decision he’s never regretted, despite those initial concerns.
“It was tough because my career had been so long at Chelsea and I was so associated with Chelsea.
“If I’m honest, I’d never envisaged playing anywhere else in the Premier League but the pull of Manchester City was huge.
“I was proud that City, who were champions at the time, wanted to take me on board at 36-years-old.
“When I spoke to Manuel at the time in New York, he felt I could help the squad because he thought they needed some experience in there.
“I took the leap because it was a top club at the time and was going to be, I thought, another great experience for me and a great opportunity to stay in the Premier League, which is the greatest in the world.
“There were a lot of pluses. But I did toy with it a bit because of my association with Chelsea.
“I had good conversations with Manuel. I really liked him. I really liked him from the moment I met him – very calm, very composed, very experienced. I liked his tone and his team.
“I found him very comfortable to work with. He wasn’t a man of a million words but when he spoke he made a lot of sense and was very calm in his delivery.
“And then there was Brian Kidd. Kiddo was amazing for me. He was part of the staff and I’d worked with him at various times with England and he was just amazing. He was a familiar face and it made me feel very comfortable.”
Lampard was a big character at Chelsea’s training ground, Cobham, shaped by 13 years in blue.
He was one of the key figures in the dressing room, leading the way alongside the likes of John Terry and Didier Drogba.
It was a different story as he swapped London for Manchester, arriving - in his own words - as the ‘new boy at school’.
It was a unusual feeling for the attacking midfielder but he soon won over his new teammates.
"It was really strange. Being at Chelsea for so long, I had the same drive into the training ground, the same faces when I got there, the same dressing room day after day."
“I was established in it and then going to City, I think the first day I absolutely felt like I was going back to school – the new boy – because even though I’d got a long career behind me, sitting in a different dressing room with Aguero, Milner, Richards, Nasri, Toure was a different environment for me.
“At first, I kept quiet just to gauge the dynamics but I was delighted to get a good feeling so quickly.
“I felt real respect from the players, they were very helpful in terms of settling in and I tried to keep my head down and get training and show them I was serious and wanted to come in and help.
“I was made to feel very, very welcome, not just by the players but by all the staff at the training ground. I loved it from day one if I’m honest.”
It wasn’t just the environment that changed for Lampard.
He had a new kit colour to get used to! It was blue – but a different shade!
“That was strange too. I remember doing the photoshoot with the new kit when I signed and it did genuinely feel strange.
“I’d been at Chelsea for so long and I was synonymous with that club and people expect to see you in that kit forever and personally you feel the change even with that.
“But for all the potential anxieties or fears about changing, from the minute I did, it felt really comfortable and I think that was due to the warmth of the club – everybody who was working there.
“That’s my overriding feeling about City – the warmth of the staff and the fans. I found it a great club for that, a wonderful environment to play your football.”
He also had a new squad number – 18 rather than the familiar 8 that he’d worn for his entire time at Stamford Bridge, since taking the shirt from Gustavo Poyet at the start of the 2001/02 campaign.
Samir Nasri wore No.8 at City and Lampard stressed there was never any suggestion of asking the French international for the shirt he’d grown accustomed to.
“I would never have had a conversation about that. I would never have wanted to step on anyone’s toes like that, that’s just not me,” Lampard continued.
“I was obviously No.8 at Chelsea. I got attached to that number for Chelsea and England for many years but those sort of things are never really important to me.
“And especially at a new club, I would never have wanted to upset the apple cart.
“The fact that No.18 was available and had the No.8 in it was a tiny symbol for me but I was going in with total respect for all the players who were there.”
Lampard was one of six new faces heading into the 2014/15 season.
He was joined by Bacary Sagna, Fernando, Willy Caballero, Bruno Zuculini and Eliaquim Mangala as Pellegrini reshaped his squad for a new challenge.
Lampard made his debut – and his first start – in a 2-2 away draw with Arsenal at the Emirates before being replaced at half-time.
The following week’s fixture was a huge one for Lampard – a home clash with his former club, Chelsea and, in the irony of ironies, the goalscoring midfielder came on to blast home a late leveller against Jose Mourinho’s table-topping side in an entertaining 1-1 draw.
Pellegrini said in his post-match press conference that he had a feeling Lampard would score.
Looking back now, Lampard admits he had the same feeling on a day which provoked a ‘lot of emotions’.
“If I’m honest, I did have the feeling I’d score too,” Lampard continued.
“When Manuel signalled me for me to come on, I’m not silly, I knew he was probably doing it because of the opposition and what this game meant to me personally – the ex-player coming back and making a difference against his former club.
“So I sensed it as I was getting changed on the line. I wondered if I had enough time to impact the game, though.
“It was a pretty surreal day for me. Everyone made a huge deal of it and I understand why but, for me, I was proud to score for my new club, that professional instinct and I was very pleased but also very respectful of Chelsea.
“There was a little bit of fate in it, of course. Maybe I had some inside info on when to make the runs coming up against my old teammates at Chelsea. And it just happened.
“Chelsea had let me leave a few months before and I was very respectful of that. But my job was to go out and impress and make an impact with my new club.
“The fact it endeared me a little more to the fans and my teammates was great. It does stick in my mind and it was a surreal day.”
The goal against his former employers lit the touchpaper for Lampard and he scored four goals in three games – two in a 7-0 home League Cup win over Sheffield Wednesday and another in a 4-2 away Premier League win at Hull City.
He ended up making 38 appearances in total across 2014/15 – starting several, coming on in more – and bagged eight goals across a campaign which saw City finish second behind eventual champions, Chelsea.
Despite not playing as much as he was either used to or would have liked, he has nothing but fond memories of his time at City, calling it an ‘absolute pleasure’.
He believes that despite not finishing top of the Premier League table, the signs were there concerning City’s elevation into a ‘dominant force’ in football.
“It was a season of ups and downs. The club was in a slightly transitional period in terms of the age of the players and some players potentially moving on.
“But, for me, it was an absolute pleasure to play at the club and be around the people, learn about the club and, as I left the club to go out to New York, it was clear for me to see that City were going to be a dominant force in the next amount of years because of the quality of the vision and the quality of the people they had behind the scenes from the top to the bottom like Khaldoon [Al Mubarak], Txiki [Begiristain] and Ferran [Soriano].
“It was incredible. It was really eye-opening for me to see how a football operation should work. It was very impressive.”
His farewell to both City and, indeed, the Premier League was to be an emotional day for the man they call Super Frank.
He was made captain by boss Pellegrini for the final day home clash with Southampton, scored the opener in the 2-0 win before being thrust into the air multiple times by players and staff in a sign of huge affection for the Premier League legend.
Lampard didn’t expect any of it but said it ‘finished off a really special year’ for him.
“It couldn’t have gone much better,” the midfielder said of his Etihad send-off.
“It was an emotional day when I look back. Being made captain was a great honour.
“For the crowd to show me so much respect, to score the goal which felt like fate for me, it was a really nice personal send-off for me.
“To then be presented with a signed shirt, which I still have as a picture in my house, was emotional.
“I wasn’t a Man City player all my career or a large part of my career so I didn’t expect anything from it. To be lifted up at the end, it finished off a really special year for me on a personal note.
“And the Etihad crowd? Their warmth towards me surprised me. But I was so pleasantly surprised by it all. They were fantastic.
“How exciting a signing was I coming in at 36? It’s not a progressive signing.
“But I’d like to think they saw my desire, my industry, my work ethic and when I came out on the pitch, I’m not a flashy person, I just try and impact games.
“I did feel their warmth.
"I felt it on and off the pitch too. I lived pretty central, in Deansgate, and I saw a lot of fans out and about and they were so kind and gracious with me. That made me feel good.”
Lampard played with some incredible stars during his career with West Ham, Chelsea, Manchester City, New York City and England.
The list is endless – for West Ham, there was Michael Carrick, Rio Ferdinand and Joe Cole, for Chelsea you had John Terry, Petr Cech, Didier Drogba, for New York, Andrea Pirlo and David Villa were alongside him while for England he had David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Michael Owen and Paul Scholes also donning the Three Lions.
But the superstars he shared a dressing room with at City take some beating.
Afterall, the three he picks out all boast statues outside the Etihad.
Sergio Aguero. Vincent Kompany. David Silva. The modern triumvirate.
Lampard said he was honoured to play alongside them.
“I played with one of the best strikers at Chelsea in Didier Drogba. Sergio is obviously a different style to Didier. But I was genuinely amazed by him.
“We would do one-on-ones in training where you’d run through on the keeper and it was just incredible to see his talent - sitting the keeper down, feigning to go one way and then doing a different kind of finish.
“He had a true goalscoring instinct and a very loveable approach to the game.
“Sergio came in every day, did his thing, smiled a lot, had a cheeky way about him.
“He scored a hat-trick against Bayern and four against Tottenham when I was there. He was a goalscoring machine and I loved playing with him. He goes in right at the top in and around Didier in terms of the best strikers I’ve played with for sure.
“Vinnie was a great leader.
“It’s not surprising to see him doing what he’s doing now with his coaching because he was always well educated, had time to talk to everybody, wasn’t afraid to speak up and have an opinion on things.
“He was a top player and a proper leader.
“I obviously worked under a great captain in JT and when I walked into City there was another great captain, a different style but an absolutely top level one nonetheless.
“David was quiet around the place but what an incredible player. I noticed it first in training and he was of the highest, highest level. He was right up there.
“But his humility as a lad made him even more special to me because he had zero ego.
“He just came in, did his job and did it a high, high level. So he was a true pleasure to play with.
“I always reference David because of his talent but also his personality. He was incredible.
“He liked a night out with the lads too. I’d heard a rumour about this before I joined. But I thought ‘no chance!’ We had a couple of nights where he was there on the beers. He’d be there until the end of the night. He was very friendly, very nice, enjoying himself, a lovely guy.
“It says a lot about their quality that Sergio, Vincent and David all have statues outside the Etihad. But it also says a lot about the football club.”
After departing the Etihad in May 2015, he officially joined New York City two months later ahead of their 2015/16 MLS campaign.
The quick turnaround – as well as Lampard’s eagerness to hit the ground running – resulted in a troublesome calf injury that he never really managed to shake off in that first campaign.
But, given a full pre-season ahead of 2016/17, City saw the real Lampard as he provided 13 goals and three assists in 19 appearances as they finished in second place in the Eastern Conference and qualified for the MLS Cup Playoffs for the first time ever.
“I loved my time in New York and I loved the people behind the scenes there, again, mirroring City. They were very accommodating, very helpful so we had a great time in New York.
“That first season was a bit tough because of my injury. But I came back fit and scored a fair amount of goals for games played. I enjoyed travelling all around the States playing.
“I enjoyed playing at the Yankee Stadium. I know it’s not a soccer stadium but it was still an incredibly historic venue.
You could feel again that the club was going to make big strides forward in the future because it was so ambitious a club and group.
City were eventually eliminated by Toronto in the semi-finals and Lampard announced his retirement not long after, in February 2017.
Despite impressing in the world of media in the months that followed, Lampard soon set his sights on a career in management.
And who better to consult about what was expected in that world than Pep Guardiola.
Thanks to his connections with City, Lampard was invited in to see the City boss and was delighted with the advice given him by the boss, who he called ‘warm and welcoming’.
“I came up to see Pep before I started on my managerial career. I spent two days up there.
“On the first day, I just turned up and sat quietly in the canteen. I didn’t want to make a big deal. I was happy to just wait there and someone to tell me when training starts so I could observe.
“But Pep came and got me and told me to come with him to his office. We ended up sitting there for over an hour. It was gold and to the point where someone had to come and tell Pep to come out because training was starting.
“He had so much time for me. He was warm and welcoming.
“City had won the league. I think they’d won it with a few games remaining so he was probably quite chilled but at the same time he didn’t have to do that.
“I watched those two days of training and it was a pleasure to see him in his element – the energy he puts into his work, the great detail he goes into.”
Lampard’s first step into management was with Derby who he took to the Championship Play-Off Final in his first season in the job – 2018/19.
They were eventually beaten 2-1 by Aston Villa at Wembley in the showpiece and, the following month, the Rams gave Lampard permission to speak to Chelsea to replace Maurizio Sarri as their manager.
He took over at Stamford Bridge in July 2019 and in his first match, he suffered a 4-0 defeat to Manchester United in his first Premier League game in charge.
The scoreline was harsh on the visitors, who were the better side before half-time and hit the frame of the goal twice.
Chelsea followed that up with narrow defeat to Liverpool on penalties in the UEFA Super Cup final.
The new boss was frustrated with the results – not with how his side had played - as he made his way back to London from Istanbul before receiving a series of voice messages on WhatsApp from Guardiola.
“As a manager coming up against Pep? He’s clearly one of the hardest managers to come up against because of the way he sets up the team. He gives you so many problems. They are so hard to deal with because of the level of players he has but also the way he sets up.
“When you’re a young coach like I was at Chelsea, you know you’re coming up against one of the very best coaches and you’re wary of what he can do to you.
“But in the management world where you can expect a coach to maybe be aloof or just worried about themselves, he’s made contact with me at various points, at Chelsea and Everton and when I’ve not been working, and sent me messages, voice notes saying well done after wins and good luck before certain games.
“It’s something I’ve really, really appreciated. He doesn’t have to do it and I’m sure I’m not the only one he does it to.
“But I certainly have appreciated that touch from him because that says everything you need to know about the man allied to his quality as a manager.
“I understand the challenge of being a manager – the full-time nature of it, how hard it is to focus on anything else because it gives you so many things to find solutions for.
“I remember we lost 4-0 to Manchester United. We played pretty well but got counter-attacked a couple of times and then in the Super Club we played well but lost to Liverpool on penalties.
“And I was down but then when someone of his ilk sends you a voice note to say he enjoyed the way we’d played, it gave me a really good feeling. I have no qualms saying that.
“He has experience and his experience is written down in history because he’s won so much. But it’s not all about that, sometimes it’s the style and I wanted to play in a positive way like him.
“He acknowledged that and it certainly helped.
“Fortunately after that, we did manage to take the club forward.
“In the games against City that year, we lost 2-1 at the Etihad and then won 2-1 at Stamford Bridge, they were great games for me to come up against someone of his level and go toe to toe with him.
“I can’t say enough about Pep. To watch him do what he does, we know he’s up there with the very best managers of all-time. No doubt about it.”
Everton was Lampard’s next stop as a boss after leaving Chelsea.
At the time of his appointment, the club was languishing in 16th place, four points above the relegation zone.
He guided Everton to Premier League safety in the most exciting way possible, turning around a 2-0 deficit to Crystal Palace on the penultimate day of the season at Goodison Park to win 3-2, a result which maintained their 68-year top flight status.
The following campaign, incidentally our historic 2022/23 season, was another difficult one for the Toffees and he was replaced by Sean Dyche in January 2023 before ending the season at Stamford Bridge again, coming in as caretaker manager following the dismissal of Graham Potter.
Indeed Lampard was in the dugout at the Etihad as City beat Chelsea 1-0 in May 2023, with Guardiola’s men enjoying the festivities post-game as we celebrated our third Premier League in succession.
For that reason, he’s a good man to assess the current City outfit, who currently hold the ‘Big Five’ of Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League, Super Cup and Club World Cup.
It's fair to say he’s hugely impressed, calling us ‘a pretty invincible force’.
“City are a fantastic outfit in every sense,” Lampard added.
“What they did last season in winning the Treble was an incredible achievement but also to do it in the style they did.
“Obviously we have spoken of Pep as the coach. But there’s so much quality throughout the team that I love to watch.
“The style they play with, the physical nature of them now as well, they are so strong as a team as well as the technical ability they’ve always had.
“With a great manager and smart recruitment, they’ve developed into a pretty invincible force.
“Through my time at the club and the good bonds I’ve forged at the club, as much as everyone would expect that I’m a Chelsea fan which I am, I always keep a good eye out for City and I’ve loved watching them.”
Words by Paul Brown. Design by Izzy Rendell
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