Now Lampard must build the foundations for next boss

Interim manager has a key role to play in turning ailing Chelsea’s fortunes around

- Dan Kilpatrick

CHELSEA still have seven games to play, but last night’s elimination by Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-final effectively brought down the curtain on their wretched season.

The Blues are eight points from eighth place and winless in five League games, so even a spot in next season’s Europa Conference League is surely out of reach, leaving the club stranded in mid-table with nothing but pride on the line.

Frank Lampard, the only manager in the club’s 118-year history to lose his first four games in charge, afterwards insisted the prestige of playing for Chelsea should be motivation enough for his players and said the club should neither “be too short term” in its outlook nor “jump too far ahead”, unwittingly encapsulating the lack of strategy and direction which has contributed to such a remarkable slump.

In fairness, Lampard was making the point that Chelsea’s fortunes could dramatically change, while urging the squad to remain focused on the here and now, but clearly part of his job should now be to lay the groundwork for next season under a new manager.

Next week marks a year since Todd Boehly and the Clearlake consortium were named as preferred bidders for the club, but Chelsea are, in effect, still at square one, with a fifth head coach of the owners' short tenure still to be named and a huge job ahead to create a streamline squad and, more importantly, a cohesive culture.