'Walter was an incredibly successful manager and an even better bloke, and I found it a really interesting way of looking at it' Frank Lampard reveals managerial wisdom from Rangers legend Walter Smith

Frank Lampard has a keen sense of what people think but rarely seems affected by it either way.

Lampard was an eyebrow-raising appointment as the new manager of Coventry City in the autumn of 2024. He knew it, and he knew why. He'd seen and heard it all before.

Now 47, Lampard has matured into a circumspect, savvy manager who knows what he doesn't know and makes it his business to learn.

Frank Lampard on the advice of Walter Smith

"I spoke to the great Walter Smith once, when I was at Chelsea," Lampard tells FourFourTwo when asked about building his experience despite still being a young man in managerial terms.

"Walter said, ‘Frank, take your youthfulness as a manager and enjoy it.’ He said that, at times, when he got older as a manager, he got worse because he over-thought stuff."

"Walter was an incredibly successful manager and an even better bloke, and I found it a really interesting and different way of looking at it – that you can find the balance of keeping your youthful exuberance and a feeling for the job, because you have to have that passion for it, with a little bit of ‘I’ve seen this situation before’ experience."

Lampard says he's learned a lot since taking on his first managerial role at Derby County in 2018, taking knowledge and inspiration from anywhere he can to supplement what he's adamant was a sturdy footing from playing at the highest level.

There won't have been many conversations with people more steeped in the game than Smith, who managed Rangers for most of the 1990s and had a second spell in charge after leading Everton and Scotland in between.

Smith was at the helm when the Gers were Scotland's dominant force, winning 10 league titles in all and a stack of doubles and trebles to boot.

It's no surprise that he made an impression on a mind as sharp as Lampard's. Smith was and is revered in management circles, a fact that was evident in the tributes from all across the footballing world when he sadly passed away five years ago.

Even as Lampard aims to hold on to his youthfulness, to remain ambitious, pragmatic and adaptable, he's seen more in seven years of management than most.

From a promotion push at Derby to a relegation scrap with Everton, a transfer ban at Chelsea to a united recruitment philosophy at the Coventry Building Society Arena, that 'I've seen this situation before' experience is setting Lampard up nicely for the next phase in his development.