There are so many stories to follow during the current summer transfer window that it’s kind of impossible to keep up. All across Europe there are teams improving their respective squads in big ways, and there are others that should probably start panicking just a little bit. Alas, while the big focus may be on the players themselves, there’s also a lot of intrigue in the management game right now.

The main source of interest, on our part, comes at Stamford Bridge. It was recently confirmed that Frank Lampard would be joining Chelsea Football Club as their new boss, leaving Championship side Derby County in the process. Lampard will be returning to the club that helped him to make a name for himself, to the point where many fans consider him to be one of the greatest players of his generation – especially in the English game.

Here we go

Now, though, with the Blues’ transfer issues as well as their poor start to pre-season, there are already question marks over the decision to bring Lampard into the fold. Some believe that it’s too much too soon for him, and while we can kind of understand the logic behind that, it’s not like we’ve got another Alan Shearer situation on our hands or anything like that.

Lampard has already set the groundwork for himself with the aforementioned Rams, as he was able to guide the club to the Championship Playoff Final. They came up short against a very tough and very strong Aston Villa side, but in the end, the big story was the fact that Super Lamps was able to work his magic once again, but this time from the touchline.

All of this begs the question: what will be considered a success? The general theme of ‘success’ in management is pretty subjective, but let’s be honest here, they’re going to be expecting results pretty quickly out of the gate. We all know that is going to be unlikely, and as such, we’re intrigued to see how the fan perception of Frank develops and changes between now and the end of the upcoming season.

What do we expect?

A place in the top four seems like the minimum here, but if you want to stretch this out, a real success would probably be winning a cup competition of some sort. We aren’t at all suggesting that it’s likely, but he has certainly been showing signs of being a great young manager in the English game.

The bookmakers have already started pondering over when he’s going to get the sack and how well he’s going to do in his first season in charge, and while that pressure won’t subside, we kind of hope that the media backs off him a little bit. He knows the level of challenge that faces him, and he doesn’t need any kind of extra scrutiny behind that.

Whether he succeeds or fails, you certainly can’t accuse the legendary midfielder of sitting back and taking it easy.