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Lampard’s Appointment Puts The Gerrard Deal Into Perspective For The Sevconuts.

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Today Frank Lampard has been confirmed as the manager of Derby County.

I spoofed this very moment just the other week, when he was linked with Ipswich.

It is his first ever job in management. Nobody in Derby is giddy over this. Nobody in Derby sees this as a masterstroke. Nobody in Derby has suggested that he will inherit a war-chest. Derby is an appropriate level for a first time boss with a famous name in England.

On top of that, nobody down there expects much. Nobody down there expects miracles either on or off the field. Nobody down there thinks the media will be staking the club out or that kids all around the world are suddenly going to have the name of the club on their lips. There is no fanfare. There are no predicted pots of gold.

The whole thing, in fact, is fairly low key. Unsurprising as Derby aren’t a major club and Lampard has never managed as much as a single competitive game.

It makes the reaction of the press up here – star-struck and slavering – all the more embarrassing. It makes the reaction of the Sevco fans look hilariously overblown and it just goes on and on. The Record – and more on that rag, believe me, later on tonight – is already running a ludicrous story about how Gerrard is the “favourite” to win the “battle” between the two of them … what absolute shite that newspaper writes. Really.

One of the “bets” is which of the two will be first to be named England manager. Shame there’s no way we can get a bet on “none of them, ever” because, of course, that’s where the smart money would be. The Scottish press (and Adrian Durham, let’s not forget) was talking the same arrant junk about Mark Warburton not that long ago.

What are his chances of being England boss now? Hmmm ….

Honestly, the hysteria that has surrounded the Gerrard appointment is wholly absent in the coverage of Lampard, and the move should be a dashing blow against the Sevconut’s expectations of mega-coverage in England. It was never going to happen anyway, but Lampard himself won’t get it and he’s based down there.

But if such attention was going to be paid, it will now, at best, be split evenly between the pair of them, and Lampard certainly more so as his playing career was the far more successful of the two, with a UEFA Cup as well as a Champions League, four FA Cups to Gerrard’s two and, let’s not forget, four EPL title winner’s medals to Gerrard’s zero.

(Although, to be fair, the media has tried to blame Brendan Rodgers for that.)

He was second in the Ballon D’Or in 2005. Gerrard was third.

Gerrard played slightly more games for England, but Lampard scored more goals.

The Scottish media’s OTT reaction to this appointment has been put in sharp contrast today with the way the English press has covered Lampard’s taking the Derby job. He will be much more carefully watched by the hacks down south, but they’ve treated his first appointment as boss with a level of attention wholly appropriate to the moment.

In contrast, our own hacks were virtually wetting their pants.

One of them actually sounded a lot like he had.

They are beyond shaming. So too are the Sevco supporters who by their own admission are giddy because the club has a manager with a bigger global reputation than they do … it is the way of small clubs to get excited over such things.

The euphoria rarely lasts.

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