Frank
Lampard would have pressure taken off him as Chelsea boss under the club's
year-long transfer ban, Paul Merson says.
Lampard is the favourite to take over at Stamford Bridge after the Blues
confirmed today Sarri has returned to his native Italy to take the reigns at
Serie A champions Juventus.
Sky Sports News understands Chelsea have made their former midfielder their
'priority' target since learning of Sarri's desire to leave, but have not
yet approached his club - Derby County - over buying out his contract, which
would cost £4m.
The 40-year-old has just completed his first season in management at Pride
Park and would enter the Chelsea hot-seat as a relative rookie, but Merson
believes his rapport with the club's fanbase, plus their enforced transfer
ban covering this summer and next January, would make the transition back to
the Premier League a lot easier.
"He's done a bit of an apprenticeship at Derby. They did great to get into
the Championship play-off final," he told Sky Sports.
"But it's not like you're bringing in a manager who's going to be dealing
with £70, 80, 90m transfer deals with the pressure on him to bring in
players, especially when you haven't been in that situation before and
you're talking about inexperience.
"(Ole Gunnar) Solskjaer - he's been manager of Molde, didn't do great at
Cardiff and he's got to be bringing in players of that level. But with
Frank, he comes in and the team's there, the fans will be patient with him
because he's a legend. I think he ticks the boxes.
"If he comes in too, Jody Morris has already been at the club, he knows the
kids who are coming through. There are a lot more of those kids at Chelsea
and it is more of a chance to give them a chance instead of bringing players
in and the crowd asking what they brought him in for."
Merson had a word of warning for the club, however, that they may regret
their indifference towards Sarri despite the Italian guiding them to third
place in the Premier League, the Europa League title and the final of the
Carabao Cup.
Sarri reportedly also found transfer chief Marina Granovskaia difficult to
deal with and was jeered at times from the stands.
"The football hasn't been great under Sarri," Merson said. "Season wise
though, it's not been bad. I hope we don't look back next season and think,
cor, he was good - they only finished behind Liverpool and Manchester City.
"To come third and winning a European final - it's the tournament they were
in too, they didn't drop out of the Champions League - could they have done
much more?
"The pressure was: he didn't really play (Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Callum
Hudson-Odoi), was predictable with Jorginho, and the football at Stamford
Bridge wasn't great, it started off entertaining and then fizzled out. It
was a catalogue of things in the end. But you don't want to be sitting there
asking why they let him go next season."
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