Frank Lampard can certainly learn a lot from Thomas Tuchel.
Winning trophies as the Chelsea manager is probably the first, most crucial lesson.
Swiftly followed by the page about handling high-profile players and their pride.
Then paragraphs about consistent styles of play and the tactics to go alongside it.
However, there is one lecture that Lampard can give to Tuchel that should not be ignored.
Lampard’s legacy
The former Chelsea coach built up a reputation of intrusting several academy stars with senior positions in the squad.
Under the iconic midfielder’s guidance, Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham, Fikayo Tomori and Reece James all rose to prominence.
Cobham’s quality quartet are now either Premier League household names or stalwarts in Serie A.
Not a bad return, considering all four of them were Championship outfits in the 2018/19 campaign.
Billy Gilmour can also owe his stature as a Scotland international and the Champions League winners medal to Lampard.
Marc Guehi, Tariq Lamptey, Armando Broja, Tino Anjorin and Ian Maatsen were all given the first-team Chelsea debuts by Super Frank two seasons ago.
Guehi, Lamptey and Broja are all established in the top-flight, whilst Maatsen is a regular for Coventry City.
Anjorin has slightly gone off the boil, following his loan move to Lokomotiv Moscow, yet there is still promise of a very bright future.
Tuchel’s time to replicate Frank
Of course, Lampard’s hands were tied slightly in terms of thrusting the junior talents into the deep end.
He was hit by a transfer ban during his maiden spell in the Stamford Bridge dugout, which caused such a reliance on the development system.
Once the transfer shackles were lifted, the boss was allowed to utilise Roman Abramovich’s financial treasure chest.
Arguably, this was to Lampard’s downfall, as he failed to finetune his expensive ensemble of new signings.
Tuchel inherited the side and now has a chance to copy his predecessor’s success with the youth set-up.
Due to the rise in positive covid cases, the German had little choice but to promote several Under-23 players to train with his men ahead of Wednesday’s Carabao Cup game against Brentford.
Depending on the availability of his usual soldiers, Tuchel might decide to gift debuts to some of the emerging privates.
Furthermore, following a statement from the league regarding the continuation of football across the festive period, clubs must fill their matchday squad with ‘appropriately experienced Under-21s’ if they cannot do so with first-teamers due to covid.
This means, if Tuchel hands out a few starts tomorrow, then some of the academy scholars will be allegeable for the preceding games this term.
Which could be a massive booster for the Blues, considering the state of their current camp.
Maybe Tuchel would be wise to give Lampard a quick call about what to do in this scenario!