BREAKING! Frank Lampard accepts offer to manage Chelsea until the end of the season

Right, of course we start with the big news coming out of Chelsea this morning. Their record goal scorer, Frank Lampard, has accepted an offer to manage Chelsea until the end of the season. He's going to be taking training today, we believe, and our chief reporter Kaveh Solakul has a bit more on this. He obviously enters Chelsea, very different circumstances to when he took over last time. What is the thinking behind this then? Look, I think the thinking is that Chelsea have a short-term issue, that they need somebody to take charge of the team until the end of the season, and who better to turn to than Frank Lampard? He is available at the moment. Most Chelsea supporters would tell you that he's the club's greatest ever player. He has managed the team before and, on balance, he did a pretty good job the last time he was the manager. He was there for 18 months, he was working under extremely difficult circumstances, there was a transfer embargo, he had to bring through young players, which he did, giving a chance to players like Rhys James, Mason Mount, and he was a little bit unlucky to lose his job. Just five or six weeks before he was sacked, Chelsea were actually top of the table in December. He is raring to go. He's not the kind of person who could ever say no to Chelsea. When the call came, of course he said, yes, I want to do this job, but on the understanding that it's only going to be until the summer. Nothing has been discussed about him being the permanent next head coach of Chelsea, but I just think it makes sense for everybody. It makes sense for Frank Lampard, it makes sense for Chelsea, and it makes sense for the Chelsea supporters as well. Immediately, there's a bit of a buzz back around the club, you've got the feel-good factor again, and Chelsea supporters will be looking forward to supporting the team and going to Stamford Bridge, and also watching them against Real Madrid next Wednesday. Yeah, I mean, what about this? Okay, so tell us about the search for the permanent manager, and what if they beat Real Madrid? What if they win the Champions League? What if they do well at the end of the season? They've got a permanent manager that might have agreed a deal to come in to take over next season, and then Frank's achieved more than they could ever wish for. Look, I think there are a lot of ifs, but we've seen this happen before. Roberto Di Matteo stepped in to become the interim head coach, and he ended up winning the Champions League as well, and he got the full-time job. Even Thomas Tuchel, when he got the Chelsea job, when Frank Lampard was sacked, within a couple of months, he'd won the European Cup as well. So there is history of this kind of thing happening at Chelsea. I think it would be a big decision for the owners to take if Frank Lampard, for instance, won all his Premier League games, won the Champions League as well. Could they really say goodbye to him and appoint somebody else? Look, I think the message coming out of Chelsea is loud and clear. I think Frank Lampard is going to stay until the summer, but the process to identify and appoint a new head coach carries on. Frank Lampard is aware of that. It gives Chelsea some breathing space and some time to make sure that they get the right man. Last time round, it was very rushed. It was only a matter of hours between Tuchel being sacked and Graham Potter being appointed. This time round, they want to take their time and make sure they get the right person. It does seem to make sense. You're with us throughout the day for now. Thank you very much indeed. I'm going to get Steve's take on this, because we haven't really discussed this yet. What do you make of this? Any surprises, really? Do you think they should have appointed someone long-term already? I think, as Carvey said, it's one of those ones where he knows the club back to front. He knows the vast majority of players. Well, not the vast majority of players, because they went out and bought quite a lot of players, but the players will certainly know him. It does seem to make a lot of sense. As you said, they have got history with Di Matteo and Tuchel, but what does happen? Obviously, Lampard himself, you can imagine if he does win the Champions League, as I said, it puts him in an unbelievable position. Of course, if it is a case where he doesn't get the Chelsea job, then he's a fantastic candidate for other clubs. You've got to look at him and think, well, he's one of the very few managers that actually won the Champions League. I think it's kind of a win-win if things go right, really. It's a win-win for Chelsea and it's a win for Lampard as well. Do you not feel they have to give it to him if he won the Champions League? It depends on what the discussions are, to be quite honest. Again, I think it's just on the provisional votes until the end of the season, but if he does absolutely fantastically well, they might just think, well, do you know what, let's be honest, as Carvey said again, his time at Chelsea, I thought he'd done quite well, particularly with the transfer embargo and different other trials and tribulations that he had. So there's a possibility. As we all know, you just don't know what happens in football. It's a strange industry and when you think something's not going to happen, it does. He certainly left them in a much healthier position than they currently are, 11th in the table right now, this time last season they were third. They were 20 points better off. Where do you think it's fallen apart for them? Well, I think first of all, I think Potter was a manager that, in my opinion, and Carvey probably knows a lot more detail than me, but his players are getting signed, which is just thinking, I haven't got a clue, you know, that we're waiting for him. Paying an exorbitant amount of money for them, he's got a dressing room packed full of players, he's thinking, well, what am I going to do with all of these players? But as I said, you know, Lampard himself, he's a player, he's been there, he's seen it, he's done it. Well, he's a legend at the club, so it is a case of, let's see what he does. Do you think they should have maybe given Potter a little bit more time? Me personally, yes, but when you hear things coming out that, as I said, you just hear these things, well, players are kind of the nicknames that they had for him and there was the discontent in the dressing room. I think it was a bit harsh, but ultimately, you've got a new owner that, you know, I think somebody sort of said he's playing FIFA manager, but he's just kind of coming in and buying this one, that one, the other. I think Graham's gotten from being at a club which was so fantastically well-run and all of a sudden he's just thinking, what on earth is going on? Yes, you could point the finger sometimes about certain decisions about how they've set up and the substitutions and stuff like that, but ultimately, we all know the book always stops with the manager, but I think the players have to take a lot of responsibility as well, but the biggest thing is how can they spend that vast amount of money which was, what, £600, £620 million and not a striker? Yeah, what about the search for a permanent manager then? Who do you think will be best suited? We've heard, you know, Luis Enrique on the list, Julian Nagelsmann as well, anyone else that you would like to see? Well, they're the ones that's been bannered about. I think the one with Nagelsmann is the fact that somebody mentioned it was his age, you know. Too young. Too young, yeah. Imagine that. You know, he's obviously got brilliant, fresh, new ideas. Enrique as well, obviously, his past as well as a player. It'll be interesting to see who they go for. As I said, I think Rodgers was even mentioned, Brendan Rodgers, but you would have thought it will be between them two, but ultimately, let's see how Frank does from now till the end of the season. Yeah, I mean, what will the main challenges be, do you think, facing this new coach when they are brought in this summer? Well, first of all, trying to get a settled team. Trying to get everybody on the same page because at the moment, it just seems as though players are just getting thrown on. Not really 100% sure what kind of formation it is, the tactics and stuff like that. Yeah, they might be tall, but you need somebody to get into the players' work so, so hard on the training ground. I'm pretty sure Graeme Potter did that, but ultimately, it didn't come off for him. But you just need a manager that's going to be quite stern with them, quite hard with them, but ultimately, them players knowing, yeah, we're doing this hard craft and it is a big task going in every day and working so hard on certain things. But ultimately, if you're getting the right results, which is what they want, because let's be honest, the results just have not been good enough for Chelsea. It proves that because, as you said, they're 20 points difference between now and last season. But they need a goal scorer. Is it a possibility that you could get Lukaku back? It's just, it is one of those things where, you know, prospects, they'll have to look at different things. The owner will certainly have to look at different things and see which roads he can go down.