Coventry chief admits they face battle to maintain Frank Lampard amid hyperlinks to Chelsea job after guiding membership to Premier League promotion
Coventry face a fight to keep Frank Lampard this summer after their promotion to the Premier League promotion, admits club owner Doug King.
The former England midfielder, who has also managed Derby, Chelsea and Everton, led the Sky Blues back to the top tier for the first time since 2001 and has also delivered the Championship title.
Lampard has one year left on his contract at Coventry and is set to be offered a new one – but King accepts that Lampard will have suitors.
It could be a busy summer of changes in the Premier League. Bournemouth have announced that Marco Rose will replace Andoni Iraola at the end of the season, but Crystal Palace‘s Oliver Glasner is leaving and 47-year-old Lampard is on the bookmakers’ shortlists to replace Liam Rosenior at Chelsea. There also remains doubt over the long-term future of Newcastle’s Eddie Howe.
King told the BBC: ‘You can see how emotionally connected [Lampard] is with the city, you can see what it meant to him to get promotion and then the title and I think he’s found a happy place at the moment.
‘It doesn’t mean there’s not going to be some staggering bid for him in the summer and he’ll have to make his choices, because he’s shown his credentials as a high quality head coach, but I’m not going to comment on that, I can’t control it.
Coventry are facing a fight to keep Frank Lampard after their promotion to the Premier League
‘I just think he’s happy, I’m happy, everybody’s happy, we’ve just got smiles on our faces and we don’t worry about what may or may not happen for the head coach.’
King also revealed that Coventry are unlikely to spend extravagantly during the transfer window.
Clubs promoted from the second tier usually find it very difficult to stay up in the first year and often pay high fees and wages to try to do so.
Daily Mail Sport reported earlier this month that King is likely to be more cautious.
He said: ‘People spend money very badly at times, I would say what we do is we look for value.
‘A very expensive footballer might still be value, there are lot of footballers who are very expensive but who are not value.
‘We will do what we’ve got to do, but don’t associate staying in the league and being very successful just with how much money you throw out of the door, I think that would be a mistake.’
