Frank Lampard Coventry Manager: 8/1 Boosted Bet on Cov to finish Top 6

Coventry City have finally announced that their new head coach is Frank Lampard, after weeks of speculation. It is three weeks to the day since they parted company with Mark Robins and now owner Doug King has turned to the former Chelsea and Everton manager to try and take the Sky Blues into the Premier League. 

Betfred have chosen to boost the odds on Lampard to take Coventry into the top six and you can find out more below. 

The Sky Blues currently sit 17th in the Championship, 10 points off the play-off places and only two above the relegation zone. But this is clearly a squad of players that has underperformed this season, having finished ninth last term and pushed Manchester United all the way in the FA Cup semi-final. 

After the sales of Viktor Gyokeres and Gustavo Hamer for a combined fee of £35m in the summer of 2023, most of that money has been reinvested into the playing squad with the likes of Haji Wright, Ellis Simms, Jack Rudoni and Liam Kitching all arriving in multi-million pound deals. There’s a lot of quality littered throughout this squad and King has made it clear that making it to the Premier League is the ultimate aim. 

Coventry have made slow starts to each of the last three seasons now, with Robins able to turn things around in the past two years. That culminated in a play-off final against Luton Town in 2022/23, before they climbed up to ninth last season, and had that incredible FA Cup run to boot. They are, on paper, a squad that should be able to get themselves in and around the play-offs and with a massive chunk of fixtures to come between now and January, progress can quickly be made in the second tier. 

One thing that should improve the playing squad is the arrival of Joe Edwards and Chris Jones to help Lampard out. After the departure of Adi Viveash in the summer, Coventry have lacked a proper seniority in the coaching set-up, and so the arrival of two men with excellent CVs should seriously improve them. 

Edwards has been an assistant coach under Lampard at Chelsea and Everton, as well as working with England’s U20s before getting his first managerial gig at Millwall. That didn’t work out as he would have hoped but he joins with excellent reviews as a coach, rather than a manager. 

Meanwhile, Jones was Chelsea’s fitness coach for nine years under the likes of Carlo Ancelotti and Jose Mourinho, before working closely under Lampard at both Chelsea and Everton. He should give this squad more legs and organisation, while the players are sure to respond to a man of Lampard’s international stature.

It shouldn’t take an awful lot to get this Coventry side moving through the gears. The components are all there, they just need to be given confidence by a new voice. With wingers such as Tatsuhiro Sakamoto and Ephron Mason-Clark not being properly utilised this term, Lampard’s preferred system of 4-3-3 should be able to get the best out of them, and this squad as a whole. 

The defence needs addressing and I’m sure that will be a primary focus for Lampard and his staff, but the play-offs certainly aren’t out of the question for this Coventry City team. It’s time for Lampard to make a proper name for himself in the dugout, and if he can take this squad up the table, King's big gamble will have paid off. 

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