Southampton backed to strike Frank Lampard agreement - 'he's massively admired down here' | OneFootball

FLW's Southampton fan pundit believes that it'll be difficult to persuade Frank Lampard to join the club.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Southampton are on the search for a new manager, and they're approaching things with lofty expectations.

Will Still was sacked after just five months in charge, with the Saints' 2-0 home defeat to Preston North End seeing the 33-year-old depart with just two wins in 13 Championship games.

Now all eyes are on who the higher-ups at St Mary's are going to bring in next. Sport Republic have had rotten luck when it comes to choosing managers, with Russell Martin being responsible for 27 of the 32 league wins Southampton have had since the takeover in January 2022. In that time, the Saints have had six permanent head coaches.

Therefore, Southampton are aiming high and have Coventry City boss Frank Lampard atop their list of prospective hires.

FLW's Saints fan pundit, Martin Sanders, admires Lampard's work and would love to see him in the dugout at St Mary's.

However, there are obvious questions about why he'd choose to leave The CBS Arena at this moment in time for a side battling near the bottom, albeit with expectations of climbing back up the table quickly.

Southampton fan pundit reacts to Frank Lampard links at St Mary's

Lampard has revitalised his managerial career at Coventry after some middling spells at Everton and back at Chelsea in the Premier League.

The former Blues midfielder turned the Sky Blues from a relegation-battling one to one that was mere minutes from a second play-off final in three years, and now, in his first full season at the club, he has them top of the Championship with the hopes of going one further than last year and securing promotion back to the top flight for the first time since 2001.

Lampard has an admirer in Sanders, and the Saints fan pundit speaks for every Southampton fan when he says, "If I were going to go for anyone, I'd love to see Frank Lampard.

"You look at what he's doing at Coventry, he's turning himself into a great manager. He's massively admired down here, too, and has been for a long time.

"I'm not surprised at what he's doing there. He has a great, well-established group of players; he's been there for a while now, and he has them going in the right direction — I think he'll lead them up."

Understandably, Sanders echoes the questions asked by every Championship fan; however, why would Lampard decide to jump ship when he clearly has a good thing going at his current club?

"Would he really leave a promotion charge, a team that can get to the Premier League for us?" he questioned.

"If you look at us from the outside, you'd be a bit concerned as a manager at the moment with how quickly we go through them."

Despite this, Sanders feels that Lampard may at least entertain a conversation with the former Premier League outfit. With there still being plenty of football to play, the Saints could make a late promotion push, just like Coventry did last season under their current boss.

"We jump from manager to manager, and players are being recruited by other managers, so we might not have what he requires," he said.

"But will he have a conversation with them? I'm sure he will do."

Southampton would be improved massively with Frank Lampard, but a move may be unlikely

Frank Lampard is closing in on a year managing Coventry, and with a winning percentage over 50%, he's showing that he's most definitely a manager fit for Premier League football.

Barring a drastic fall off, the Sky Blues look destined to reach that with Lampard at the helm, so it's easy to question why he'd even entertain the approach of a Southampton side who look dejected and in a real rut after a dismal Premier League campaign last year.

If Lampard were to make the switch, there's no doubt that he'd be able to somewhat galvanise the troops and maybe make an unlikely play-off run once again, but many would argue that it'd be too much of a risk.

Southampton fans can choose to be hopeful at this time, and they'll feel like they've hit the jackpot if they can persuade the Coventry boss to make the move, but I'm sure not many are holding their breath on these rumours.