Frank Lampard was not destined to be Chelsea's greatest player. It is a measure of a self-made footballer's mettle that he leaves Stamford Bridge with the premier place in the club's pantheon.
He, not the more explosive Didier Drogba, the more egotistical John Terry, the more inventive Gianfranco Zola or earlier idols, such as Peter Osgood, Ron Harris, Roy Bentley or Jimmy Greaves, is Chelsea’s finest.
Lampard’s achievement is all the bigger considering the unpromising beginning.
His initial outings were as an unconvincing ersatz right-sided midfielder and some wondered if the £11 million Claudio Ranieri spent was excessive. Hindsight shows it was a bargain.
As much as Roman Abramovich’s huge investment propelled Chelsea to the most glorious spell in their history, so did Lampard’s insatiable quest for improvement.
Jose Mourinho gave him confidence, direction and a system configured to allow him to get forward. Lampard supplied the energy and the extraordinarily potent finishing to enable him to capitalise on his ability to get into dangerous positions.
Harry Redknapp, his uncle and manager at West Ham, recalled seeing the young Lampard staying behind after training to either work on his stamina or his shooting from various distances and angles.
Chelsea reaped the benefits. Few deemed Lampard even the second best talent of an emerging generation at Upton Park that also included Rio Ferdinand, Joe Cole, Michael Carrick and Jermain Defoe yet, in 2005, he was voted the second best player on the planet, the efficient Englishman trailing only an extravagant Brazilian.
Ronaldinho had the flicks and tricks, Lampard a no-frills reliability that he took to remarkable levels.
Consider his club statistics, season by season, from 2003 to 2013: 15 goals in 58 games, 19 in 58, 20 in 50, 21 in 62, 20 in 40, 20 in 57, 27 in 51, 13 in 32, 16 in 49 and 17 in 50. They are virtually unparalleled for a midfielder.
Over a decade of relentless industry he scored 188 goals in 507 games and, if that is a blur of facts and figures to some, it is because Lampard transformed himself into football’s answer to Geoffrey Boycott, a paragon of consistency who outperformed more gifted players on an annual basis.
He was not always the aesthete’s choice, but there is no denying the power of the numbers he produced.
Perhaps it required selfishness, too. Lampard was that rarity, the midfielder with the striker’s mentality, the man with the scent of goal perpetually in his nostrils.
Yet his greatest moment in Chelsea colours came courtesy of his supreme selflessness. Lampard successfully reinvented himself as a holding player as Roberto Di Matteo’s team confounded expectation and logic alike to win the 2012 Champions League.
His was an understated excellence.
While it was interpreted as Drogba’s triumph, from his Herculean display against Barcelona to his late equaliser and penalty shoot-out decider against Bayern Munich, the Ivorian, unlike Lampard, had cost his side in an earlier final; his sending off against Manchester United four years earlier may have delayed their coronation.
Drogba was the more dynamic, Lampard the more dependable. It was what made him the quintessential Mourinho player.
There is something fitting in the Englishman leaving Chelsea following his mentor’s return; the Special One eased his disciple out of the team after the January recruitment of Nemanja Matic.
After the controversy over Lampard’s future during Rafa Benitez’s reign, his exit should bring no recriminations, merely celebrations. He is not an example of realising potential, but of exceeding it.
Lampard is often compared to two of his contemporaries. Paul Scholes and Steven Gerrard are the other outstanding English central midfielders of their generation – my view, which will not meet with universal approval, is that the Liverpudlian ranks first among the trio – but, through bloody-minded determination and deadly shooting, Lampard dragged himself into their class.
Along the way, across three Premier League titles, four FA Cups, two League Cups, the Champions League and the Europa League, with 211 goals in 648 games for Chelsea, he drove himself to greatness.
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