Is Frank Lampard s Coventry City ready for the Premier League

Sky Blues going back up to the Premier League after 25 years away. One of the founding fathers, Nige, said it of the Premier League and their hope is that they'll stay up there. They've got a manager at the helm right now in Frank Lampard who of course has lots of Premier League experience as a player and as a manager. How do they find success next season? If you were in charge, what would be the number one thing you're doing for Sorter of Business? Strengthen the spine. When you go to the Premier League, you need experienced spine for the Premier League. I'm talking about goalkeeper, centre-back, centre-midfielder and preferably a striker. You need to have a strong spine to stay in the Premier League. If you also want a team to look at to get a blueprint, you don't have to make a massive turnover as they did. Sunderland. Sunderland did it. Because we've had these conversations before and Tony would know about this as well, where a lot of teams who've gone to the Premier League have tried to go Premier League, Hollywood style. We're thinking just because they're in the Premier League we want to try and play total football. But if you don't have the quality, stay true to who you are. I think Frank has built a great identity in this Coventry side. They want to play football. They want to be aggressive. That's fine. That's great. But you've got to get more experience in that team. The experience that you get in a player like what Granit Xhaka has done for Sunderland, Frank Lampard needs to do something very similar. Frank's very smart. He's wise. He knows what it is. He's played his entire career in the Premier League, the Top League. He knows what it's like to build chemistry and camaraderie in the dressing room. He knows he needs to get some experience season pros there and that's what you need to do to stay in the Premier League. Yeah, you need to figure out who you want to be. In the end, this is an attacking side. If you look at their front line between Thomas Assante who had 12 goals, Sims who got the start today at 10, Haji Wright had a great season, 16 goals. But then you go back to a couple of years back, Vince and company at Burnley. In the Championship, they were an attacking side. You get to the Premier League, now it's a whole different scenario for you. Now you've got to see, how am I going to stay here? Sunderland's a great example. Nigel brings up Grant Ajaka coming in. Guys with experience that understand, figure out which pieces of the puzzle you can keep and that's the hardest part of this, right? Because your first instinct is, well, these are the guys who got me here, right? And they know what I'm asking as a manager. They know what I want to do as a manager, what we want to be, the identity of the club, what the training looks like every single day. You've just got to bring the right pieces in. We've seen Norwich make some mistakes over there. We saw Sheffield United come up and spend 150 million at one point. It didn't work. And then all of a sudden, you've got to readjust, right? So there's different ways to do it and there's no one way to do it and that's what makes it hard. Yeah, and that's why I was saying as well, this is why I say football's an art. There's an art behind it. This isn't always about numbers and there's an art because as a manager, you know now you're in the Premier League. You need the experience factor but also as much as these players experience, you need the right characters. Like Tony said, you're going to think these players are the ones who've got me up, so they know my system but you need to bring the right characters to come into that environment and also you want mini-managers for you on the pitch. You give the instructions throughout the week. This is what we're going to play, this is what we're going to do. You want one or two individuals, not just one. It probably has to be three or four on that pitch who are representing you to be able to have that ability to take that responsibility on the pitch to be your mini-manager on the pitch when things ain't going around, pulling players in, when to squeeze, when not to squeeze. So that's the art aspect of it where you have to get them to come into this environment, work with what you've already created, not disrupt it, but also have that willingness to want to win and be ambitious and go and succeed. You both have mentioned Granit Xhaka and the role that he's played in Sunderland's success this season, the experience he brings, the leadership he brings. If you can think of a player out there that would fit really well and bring all of those things to this Coventry City team going into next season, is there anyone in particular who comes to mind? Oof. That's a tough question. That's a long one. Oh, yeah. Not thinking about it. Well, I just think it's important to spine, right? For me, you look at clearly center-backs, clearly central midfielders, and you can probably go around Europe and find a bunch of those players. But it's got to be the right guy. It's got to be the person that fits. Frank Lampard, the thing I like about this, Ali, is that he has a real identity and he's now... Take a step back. Coventry's a massive club. Right? That's been 25 years out of the Premier League. So I don't know how much of a step back it is. They were close, right, to getting promoted a couple years ago. But in 2017, they were in the fourth division, right? Essentially, League Two. And he's now worked on his chop. So he has a better understanding than his time at Chelsea. And he probably has, Nigel, you would know better than I, a little bit more freedom at Coventry than he would at Chelsea because Chelsea doesn't give the manager a chance to say who they want. Frank's going to have a chance to say, okay, I need X, Y, and Z. Right? And if anyone knows what a central midfielder looks like or what he wants in a central midfielder, it's going to be Frank Lampard, right? Frank's earned the right to get them promoted. And he will have definitely a lot more authority at the club at Coventry than any other club. And there will be a lot more belief in him. He's also got the network. Football's a small networking group. He will know where to go, who to get. And I think that he will probably get some young, exciting players who are ready for the first team and not quite ready at some of the big clubs where it's going to be an opportunity with the relationships he has now to say, right, come now. You get to play Premier League football. You get to go and put yourself out on the shop window and show people what you can do. And if you can get the balance right, which I'm sure Frank will, it should be a successful season for Coventry. Well, the planning starts now. Actually, it probably already started last night as Coventry get ready to return to the Premier League. Unbelievable scenes. We got to first talk about, Tony, the goalkeeper goal. Jack Bycroft, that's who we're going to talk about. Now, you want something done, you let a goalkeeper do it. That's how you get it done. Jack Bycroft, 24-year-old Englishman, Southampton Youth Academy. But yeah, what a great goal. And they're fighting relegation right now. They're just above the drop, right? So that was equally as important to them as it was to Cardiff City. So, and then you saw that reaction in Cardiff, right? The Cardiff City fans, that game wasn't in Cardiff. So that's it. What an important moment. What a great sort of sequence there of emotions. What a rollercoaster. And it's so fun now in the age of social media, Nigel, fans actually can see in real time those other scenarios playing out where in the past you wouldn't know, but it's kind of fun to see them in real time realizing, oh my gosh, we're going to do it. Yeah, it's absolutely great. And you talk about different ends of the spectrum there. You talk about Cardiff pushing for promotion, Exeter just trying to survive and fight relegation. And just the energy between both sets of fans for two different reasons is absolutely phenomenal. And a goalkeeper to go up there and get his head to it. Finishes it better than some strikers in the modern day and age. Say it again, Nigel. Say it one more time, Nigel. Some strikers going for 60, 70, and 100 million, can't finish better than a goalkeeper. Unbelievable header. That is great. He's going to remember that for the rest of his life. Moments like that, he'll remember for the rest of his life. Don't ask me, Ali, because the answer is no. I bet Tony Miola had that in his bag back in the day with the mullet flowing in the wind. I should tell my manager. They just didn't listen to me. Send me up. Honestly, it's great. Unreal. The amazing experience that both sets of fans are going through through different reasons of their football.