Frank Lampard: Reading FC is just like West Ham United

[readingbedding]

Football consultant Frank Lampard senior has seen huge similarities between Reading and West Ham United during his five months at Madejski Stadium.

The football legend was persuaded to come back into the game on a full-time basis by Royals manager Brendan Rodgers after the pair struck up a good relationship at Chelsea.

And the former England left-back and father of Chelsea midfield star Frank junior is having the time of his life in Berkshire.

“I love it here,” said the experienced 61-year-old.

“It’s a terrific club and it reminds me a lot of being at West Ham United.

“When you go to the ground on match days everyone is so friendly and some of the bigger clubs these days, particularly in the Premier League, are much more commercial and corporate these days.

“But Reading reminds me of my time at Upton Park as assistant manager to Harry Redknapp for seven years. It was a good family club, like here, and that’s how I like it.”

Lampard takes his seat up in the director’s box for Reading’s games to get a high vantage point to analyse them from, much like former manager Steve Coppell.

But after Reading’s first home victory in the league for more than 10 months, Lampard was left wondering where all the players and staff were after the final whistle.

He explained: “Normally I leave my seat upstairs with a minute to go to have a chat with the other guys as soon as they’re back in the dressing room.

“But no-one came back and I was wondering where they had gone, but they had all been out on the pitch applauding the fans.

“We played well and I was so pleased for the players, supporters and the rest of the coaching staff because we’ve been working hard.”

Lampard continued: “In the team meetings when we played at home we never mentioned the form and now we can put it to bed.

“We need to put two or three games together now, teams in this league always beat each other, and we can go to Derby and get a win and hopefully move along as quick as we can.

“The attitude of the lads has been brilliant, they kept going and it hasn’t been easy. I’ve been in the game a long while and you go through phases. As long as you don’t hide you end up getting out of them.

“About a month ago I said to them all, ‘Whatever you do, don’t hide, don’t start hiding in games’. It’s easy to talk a good game and then go missing on the pitch, but I’ve been very pleased with the attitude.

“Brendan’s made mistakes, we all have along the way, and he’ll be first to admit that.

“But he believes in the way he wants to play and has my full backing and guidance and we work well together.

“We have great respect for each other and he’s done very well. We want to be up in the Premier League and that’s what I’m here to help achieve.”

As well as assisting with first-team duties, Lampard has also extended his expertise and football knowledge to helping out with the Academy, which is managed full-time by Eamonn Dolan.

And he added: “I’m always here, be it taking the youth team giving something back to them or helping out with the first team.

“That’s the best part of my job here, working with the kids and looking over them and helping bring players through the ranks.”

[Zammo]

“I love it here,” said the well paid 61-year-old.

[Royalee]

What's wrong with that? It means we're making good strides if anything based on the players they've produced over the years and how they've done.

[brendywendy]

the way some people seem to want to bash everything to do with this club makes me tghink they may not be reading fans at all


experienced, respected player and coach who has achieved masses in teh game, works here with youth and 1st team as advisor/mentor

cant be a bad thing IMO

[CMRoyal]

the way some people seem to want to bash everything to do with this club makes me tghink they may not be reading fans at all


experienced, respected player and coach who has achieved masses in teh game, works here with youth and 1st team as advisor/mentor

cant be a bad thing IMO

Agreed. At least we're now getting a feel for his role, his input and his thoughts. Earlier in the season it was hard to see what he was bringing to the table.

[ZacNaloen]

It just sounds like he's doing an assistant manager/senior coaching type role, but with a fancy title.

[DOYLERSAROYALER]

the way some people seem to want to bash everything to do with this club makes me tghink they may not be reading fans at all


experienced, respected player and coach who has achieved masses in teh game, works here with youth and 1st team as advisor/mentor

cant be a bad thing IMO

As long as he shows his commitment to the club who pays his wages over going to watch his son in a big game at SB - then fair enough

[brendywendy]

no


its possible he can do a job here

and still go watch his son play football

[DOYLERSAROYALER]

no


its possible he can do a job here

and still go watch his son play football

...sure he can, as long as games dont clash - hes made it clear that part of his job is to assess the overall team performances and this he does from directors box

[brendywendy]

nope, even then its ok for him to go and watch hi son in the champions league if its okd with the manager etc

[Royal Lady]

I presume though, Bendy, you'd draw the line if Rodgers had a son who played professional football and he wanted to go and watch him on match days!

[brendywendy]

I presume though, Bendy, you'd draw the line if Rodgers had a son who played professional football and he wanted to go and watch him on match days!

as a one off
agreed with his boss
then i wouldnt grumble too much

unless we lost

[Hampshire Royal]

I presume though, Bendy, you'd draw the line if Rodgers had a son who played professional football and he wanted to go and watch him on match days!

Is that what he does then?

[loyalroyal4life]

Lampard takes his seat up in the director’s box for Reading’s games to get a high vantage point to analyse them from, much like former manager Steve Coppell.

so he does what us fans do except get paid for it whereas we pay!!!

[Ian Royal]

Lampard takes his seat up in the director’s box for Reading’s games to get a high vantage point to analyse them from, much like former manager Steve Coppell.

so he does what us fans do except get paid for it whereas we pay!!!

Since when do we critically analyse a performance from a professional point of view, feed back to the manager in person and incorporate our analysis into training sessions?

[Sun Tzu]

I don't give a monkey's if any member of staff goes and watches their son play on a Saturday afternoon.

Unless their job requires them to be at all our games !

If Lampard's job description doesn't mean he has a crucial (or even semi crucial) role on match days then fair enough. He should do what he's paid to do, not what the fans think he should do.

[floyd__streete]

I don't give a monkey's if any member of staff goes and watches their son play on a Saturday afternoon.

Unless their job requires them to be at all our games !

I'd have thought that if he was expect to give input on the training ground on a Monday morning he might be in a better position to do his job if he had seen Saturday's game, wouldn't you agree? Perhaps he watches thes games on DVD. What a thought - RFC games on DVD, even the ASDA bargain bin wouldn't touch that product.

[Kevin Doyles Right Foot]

'teams in this league always beat each other' No shit sherlock.

[Sun Tzu]

I don't give a monkey's if any member of staff goes and watches their son play on a Saturday afternoon.

Unless their job requires them to be at all our games !

I'd have thought that if he was expect to give input on the training ground on a Monday morning he might be in a better position to do his job if he had seen Saturday's game, wouldn't you agree? Perhaps he watches thes games on DVD. What a thought - RFC games on DVD, even the ASDA bargain bin wouldn't touch that product.

I'm not sure missing one game would hamper his ability to make comment, is it suggested that he has never watched us play ?

And of course having access to the footage and Prozone (do we still subscribe to Prozone) info would probably allow an experienced coach to make a pretty through assessment of areas to work on. Probably more so than just wtaching a game live.

After all we all watch it live then spout utter nonsense straight afetrwards....

[No Fixed Abode]

Does that mean Reading are Chelsea's new feeder club?