What Joe Cole has said about Frank Lampard potentially leaving Coventry City for Chelsea | OneFootball

Joe Cole has told the Coventry boss to remain at the CBS Arena, amidst talks about a third managerial stint at Stamford Bridge

Frank Lampard has built himself back up to being a Premier League-level manager at Coventry City and will get a crack at the top flight once more in the 2026/27 campaign.

But questions are circling whether that will be at the club he has spent the last 18 months in the dugout for, or back with Chelsea for a third managerial stint.

Indeed, the Blues are on the hunt for a third head coach this season, after former Hull City boss Liam Rosenior was dismissed just 106 days into his time at the club following a fifth consecutive Premier League defeat without scoring.

With the season winding down, there's a chance that the Premier League giants will look more towards a permanent hire in the summer, and given his connections with the club both as a player and as a manager, Lampard is, understandably, one of the names circling the rumour mill.

Coventry owner Doug King is hopeful that the 47-year-old will bat away any advances from his former club and buy further into the project he has helped take to the Premier League, and, given the state of Chelsea currently, Lampard's former teammate, Joe Cole, is hoping he stays put, too.

Joe Cole tells Frank Lampard to stay away from the temptation of a Chelsea return

Frank Lampard has unfinished business as a manager at Chelsea, given that his recent caretaker role there saw him win just one of his 11 games in charge, but Joe Cole hopes that the lure of yet another return won't be too strong to steer him away from Coventry.

Despite being one of the best teams in the division under Lampard last season and falling agonisingly short to Sunderland in the play-offs, Cole, speaking to Paddy Power, relayed through Coventry Live, feels that promotion wasn't an expectation this season, and he should continue his "fantastic job" there.

"Frank should stay away from it [the Chelsea job]. The temptation for Frank, because he loves the club, would be to come back and give it another whirl," he said.

"He's done a fantastic job at Coventry. Nobody would have backed Coventry for promotion at the start of the season. He's got a real challenge to keep them in the league next season."

Cole hopes that the Sky Blues boss is currently looking at ways to improve the team for next season, rather than being distracted by a club that, even at the best of times under Todd Boehly, has been problematic.

"All his focus and mental energy should be about recruitment. He could be identifying five, six, seven players he wants [for Coventry]," he added.

"If I were him, I wouldn't go to Chelsea. In any job, you're being judged on results, but at Chelsea, you don't have full control over what you can do. That's insane."

Frank Lampard would be wise to stay at Coventry City this summer

The journey that Coventry has been on over the last 18 months with Frank Lampard at the helm has been more than impressive, and the 47-year-old has earned the right to take that into the Premier League.

Moving away now, while allowing him to manage Chelsea once again, would put added pressure on him to succeed, which won't be as intense a demand at the CBS Arena next season, where the expectations will be just to survive.

While Lampard has rebuilt his reputation as a manager over the past season and a half, there's no guarantee that he'll be at the level required to take on the Chelsea job.

Failing there and being sacked once more would only serve to tarnish his reputation at Stamford Bridge even further. However, being the man to keep Coventry in the Premier League in their first season back in a quarter of a century would increase his status at his current club.