LONDON: Frank Lampard was fired by Chelsea on Monday halfway through his second season in charge after being unable to replicate his success as the club’s record scorer in his first Premier League managerial job.

Chelsea have lost five of their last eight Premier League games and dropped to ninth place, despite Lampard benefiting from nearly $300 million spent on new players for this season.

Chelsea said the performances had “not met expectations” and left the team “without any clear path to sustained improvement” making a change of managers necessary with former Paris St Germain boss Thomas Tuchel hotly tipped to replace him at Stamford Bridge.

Lampard led the club to a top-four finish and the FA Cup final in his managerial debut campaign.

“This was a very difficult decision for the Club, not least because I have an excellent personal relationship with Frank and I have the utmost respect for him,” Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich said in a statement on the club’s website.

“He is a man of great integrity and has the highest of work ethics. However, under current circumstances we believe it is best to change managers.”

The 42-year-old Lampard’s points-per-game average of 1.67 is the lowest for any Chelsea manager since Abramovich arrived at Stamford Bridge in 2003. His departure marks the 14th managerial change since Abramovich’s takeover, which transformed the London club into English and European heavyweights.

Tuchel only became available a month ago when he left PSG following a power struggle with the Qatari ownership, less than five months after taking them to the Champions League final, which they lost to Bayern Munich.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2021