THE SPECIALS ONE

Frank Lampard didn't always receive comparisons with Jose Mourinho during a mixed start to life as a manager, but this year he's incredibly guided Coventry City from mid-table obscurity to the top of the Championship. As he tells FFT, his early experiences in the dugout were vital

- Chris Nee

Coventry City have been here before. In 1967, Jimmy Hill’s Sky Blues won the Second Division and were promoted to the top flight for the first time in their history. Lifelong innovator Hill took the unusual step of resigning to launch a television career, but Coventry stuck around in the top flight for 34 years.

As FFT arrives at the Coventry Building Society Arena on an autumn afternoon, the club are flying high in the second tier once again, and the nods to past generations feel especially potent.

A statue of George Curtis and John Sillett holding the FA Cup was unveiled in April. At the other end of a shuttered clutch of food and drink kiosks waiting for the next home match, a Memorial Garden is a regular stop for supporters paying tribute to their Sky Blue loved ones. Hill’s ashes were scattered here and his likeness stands proud nearby in seven feet of bronze, a monument to the only manager ever to take Coventry into the top division.

We’re here to take stock of the season so far with the man aiming to follow in his footsteps. Coventry were relegated from the Premier League in 2001 and the last quarter of a century has been a tale of turbulence and tribulation. One year into his Sky Blues reign, Frank Lampard wants to turn those troubles to triumph by regaining the club’s place among English football's elite.

“I spoke to the great Walter Smith once, when I was at Chelsea,” Lampard tells FFT, remembering a conversation with the former Rangers, Everton and Scotland manager as he sits down for a chat. “Walter said, ‘Frank, take your youthfulness as a manager and enjoy it.’ He said that, at times, when he got older as a manager, he got worse because he overthought stuff.